Tethered
by Kittenshift17
Summary: When things go awry in the Department of Mysteries, Hermione incites an ancient ritual to return James and Lily Potter from beyond the grave. The catch? The ritual demands her life unless she tethers her magic to the Order's resident Werewolf. Can they really remain impartial and unaffected when their magic is forever link and when touching him feel so exquisitely good?
1. Chapter 1

**1\. I know I said I wouldn't share anything new until it was complete or some of my other WIPs were finished. But I lied.**

 **2\. This story is Hermione/Remus. If you don't like them paired, leave now.**

 **3\. Anything you recognise belongs to JK Rowling. Anything you don't is made up by yours truly.**

 **4\. This story will be updated sporadically.**

 **5\. May contain violence, scenes of a sexual nature, adult themes, excessive fluff and angst.**

 **6\. Join the "Shrieking Shack Society" on FB for fan-art, sneak peeks and other Marauder based fun.**

 **xx-Kitten**

* * *

 **Tethered**

 _By Kittenshift17_

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 **Chapter One**

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"Stupefy!" Hermione Granger shouted, firing at one of the many Death Eaters surrounding her and her friends inside the Death Chamber at the Department of Mysteries.

She narrowly dodged the hex flung back at her in return, bumping into Remus as he and the other Order members joined the circle the six of them had made, trying desperately to keep from dying as the Death Eaters closed in. Remus didn't even look as he steadied her with one hand while he flung a nasty curse at one of the Death Eaters with the wand in the other.

"Nice one, Prongs!" Sirius Black shouted when Harry shot a hex at one of the Death Eaters, the only one in the situation seeming to find amusement instead of worry and fear.

Hermione spied the way Harry paused, mid-duel, to look up at his Godfather, a little smile pulling at the corners of his mouth over the idea of being good enough to be mistaken for James.

It would be his undoing.

"NO!" Hermione screamed as Harry was hit with a Slicing curse, his shirt ripping open and his skin split wide, blood pouring from his chest and a gash across his throat even as he was thrown across the room.

She was already moving to keep him from falling through the Whispering Veil and she fell with him, catching her arms around his waist and falling heavily to the ground, twinging her elbow in the process, before Harry could tumble prematurely into the afterlife. Dimly she was aware of the roar of fury that escaped Sirius before he stepped up his hexes from incapacitating to deadly. She was tangled around Harry on the floor but she saw the first Death Eater go down, falling to the floor, stone dead at Sirius's hand.

Her mind was racing, Harry's blood quickly spreading over his clothing, Hermione, and the cold, stone floor of the Death Chamber.

She had to save him. She had to help him.

The whispering beyond the Veil grew louder at the spilled blood and suddenly an ancient ritual she'd read about at the end of fourth year rushed to the forefront of her mind. Hermione's eyes flew wide. She could do it! It had been a ritual designed to return those who'd died of unnatural causes to life. It was a terribly tricky ritual because one had to _find_ the Whispering Veil, and the caster must be muggleborn, and the blood of the summoned must be spilled.

At the time she had thought that to be impossible, dead people's blood wasn't just kept lying around in the event that they were murdered or taken in an accident. Worse, she'd remembered reading that a member of their bloodline must still be living, but must be within his darkest hour.

As she glanced down at Harry, his eyes closed, his glasses shattered, his blood staining the floor, it all suddenly clicked into place. She didn't need the blood of the dead in the literal sense, but in the sense of someone of that bloodline. Harry was the _last_ of his bloodline.

Scrambling to her knees, Hermione dipped her fingers in Harry's blood as it spread, pooling under him. She began to trace the runes she recalled the ritual requiring; one hand drawing, the other casting the complex spells to revive the dead and restore them to life as they should've been had they not met an untimely end.

She felt a surge of power rush through her as she cast, the sounds of the battle around them falling away. Remus, Sirius, Ron and Ginny were frantically protecting the pair of them, apparently believing that she was trying to heal Harry. Neville and Luna had been pulled into the protective circle too, Tonks and Luna paired up and fighting off Death Eaters while Arthur Weasley and Auror Moody teamed up with Neville, also flinging curses and hexes at their enemies, protecting Harry and Hermione at the heart of the circle right in front of the Veil. She didn't correct their assumptions that she was healing Harry, not when she needed him _almost_ dead for a few minutes more to complete the ritual. Hermione drew the runes and cast the spells, tracing them all out in Harry's blood, giving them power.

The ritual called for something more, however, a joining of caster to the family whose bloodline she was resurrecting. Harry made a sound of pained protest when Hermione bent over him, hauling him up slightly by the back of his head, and slamming her lips down upon his. The blood upon his mouth that he'd been choking on granted the ritual more power, more magic, and more potency as he kissed back, bewildered and in pain but apparently thinking it important or simply acting on instinct, before Hermione pulled back again.

Slicing open her own palm - the blood of the sacrifice also required to activate the spell – Hermione felt the power and something else building up inside her before she opened her mouth and screamed.

The whole chamber fell silent as the duelling stopped, stilling in their shock, held captive by the wave of power that burst free of Hermione's body, the power of the spell slamming into every single one of them. The Veil, which had been white and fluttering one way through the arch, suddenly emitted a strong gust of wind, the veil blowing back this way, toward the world of the living. It emitted a glowing purple light that engulfed her as its fluttering tendrils brushed Hermione's skin. Dimly she was aware of the howling sound that emitted from within her, like the terrible shriek of a Banshee foretelling death, only in reverse, undoing Death's work and reclaiming the taken for the land of the living. Her head thrown back, beams of purple light exploding from within her, Hermione knew that this might be the end for her.

She'd read that the muggleborn doing the casting of this ritual rarely survived the resurrection, Death demanding a price be paid for the ones she called back from his embrace. If she could revive Harry's parents, if she could just bring him that small measure of comfort, Hermione knew she would go willingly.

Shapes appeared within the Veil – more of them than Hermione expected. The ritual was supposed to summon direct blood relatives of the dying – Harry's direct, _magical_ blood relatives. It should only have summoned those of direct lineage who had died before their time due to accident, murder, or illness. So when four shapes appeared instead of two, Hermione suspected that the price _she_ would pay, would be great.

"Hermione, what have you done?!"

Hermione looked down at Harry, who was gripping her hand, trying to understand what was going on and why his best friend glowed purple, shrieking and howling with the agony as parts of her very essence – her life-force – were given over to those returning from the Beyond. She'd read about this part. This wasn't soul magic, the likes of which were considered the darkest, foulest Black arts known to wizard-kind. No, Soul magic called for black magic and selfishness, a desire to live forever.

This wasn't Soul magic. Hermione was not making horcruxes out of the departed, nor was she simply raising the bodies of the dead to become Inferi. This was Life magic – the purest of sacrifices. It had to be performed by a muggleborn witch. It had to be performed by a virgin. It had to be performed willingly, for the witch must give of her own life-force in order to spark the souls of the dead back to life, returning them to bodies and souls and this plane of existence.

When a raven-haired wizard who looked like he'd stuck a fork in a live power socket stepped through the Veil, Harry had his answer. James Potter's hair was all in a mess and his hazel eyes gleamed behind spectacles that were almost identical to Harry's own shattered glasses. Holding his hand, stepping through the Veil just a pace behind her husband was a fire-haired witch with eyes that glittered like emeralds.

Lily Potter was more beautiful than any witch Hermione had ever seen.

"Prongs?" Sirius Black's voice asked hoarsely, staring at his friend.

James didn't look at his friend. He dropped immediately to the aid of his son, taking up Harry's wand and working charms over him, healing him. Lily dropped too, having no wand but holding James's hand upon Harry's wand, channelling both their magics through the single tool. Before her eyes, Harry's gaping, bloody wound healed.

"Mum?" Harry was saying, staring at his parents. "Dad?"

Behind them, two more figures stepped out of the Veil. Hermione realised at once that they must be Harry's paternal grandparents. She recalled reading that they'd both died of Dragon Pox before James had finished school. As she looked at the two, the magic still pouring from within her, the man could be none but Harry's grandfather.

Charlus Potter's hair might be threaded with grey amongst the black, but just like his son's and his grandson's, it didn't lie flat, instead sticking up all over the place. Holding his hand was a woman whose beauty made Hermione revoke the aforementioned thought of Lily Potter being the most beautiful witch she'd ever seen. With long wavy hair of the deepest black – so raven in colour it almost gleamed blue – and narrowed grey eyes, Dorea Potter was a woman who commanded attention and respect just by existing.

Hermione didn't even think about it as she held out her wand to the woman, surrendering the weapon to the witch, who smiled indulgently and accepted it before beginning to cast with devastating effect. The Death Eaters, who until that moment had been as stunned and as scared and confused as the Order, suddenly began to drop like flies. Bright green jets of light flew from the end of Hermione's wand, gripped tightly in Dorea Potter nee Black's hand.

The Lestrange brothers both went down before anyone realised what was happening.

Hermione looked on, the purple light beginning to ebb from her flesh, weakening her. The tendrils of the Veil reached for her and Hermione suddenly recalled the footnote she'd read on the ritual. That if the muggleborn was able to tether herself to something or someone powerful enough and strong enough within the world of the living, she would not succumb to death. The note had said that the simple tethering of a witch to a wizard would not be enough and might cost that wizard his life, too. It had argued that should one be in good grace with a half-breed, whose bloodline or affliction might afford him or her an unnaturally long life and an imperviousness to most magics, the caster might survive.

"Hermione, what did you _do_?" Remus Lupin's voice was suddenly in her ear, his arms closing around her, trying to pull her back from the Veil, catching her when the magic left her and she began to slump forward, toward the hungrily whispering Veil.

A tether. She needed a tether. Remus would never willingly tether anyone to himself, no matter that his werewolf status meant he was meant to be tethered to members of his pack. No, he wouldn't risk linking anyone to himself, seeing it as selfish, denying that part of his existence. But the exchange could go both ways.

Shifting in his hold, Hermione weakly lifted his arm from around her stomach, stooping to bring his wrist to her mouth. Remus gave a soft shout of surprise when Hermione bit down upon his flesh, breaking the skin and drawing blood. She sucked a mouthful of it into her herself, pushing her magic into him and drawing his into herself, bonding with him and linking the two of them. She didn't care that it might give her certain lycanthropic traits, not when it would give her strength, too. She wouldn't ever become a werewolf like him unless he savaged her in wolf form under a full moon, but she could draw a little of his wolf into herself, morphing her internal magic and her core to make room for a little wolf of her own that would grant her strength and cost her all the same side-effects of full-blown lycanthropy, minus the transformation. Hermione didn't mind. Not if it might mean she could live. Remus might be angry with her later, but she would deal with that when she wasn't inches from Death's hungry embrace

"What are you doing?" he hissed, jerking his arm free of her mouth and spinning her, still dragging her back from the Veil. The wind roared louder, the powers Beyond the Veil howling in fury that she might escape, that she might remain tethered to this world and not surrender to the next.

Hermione didn't even think about it when she lifted her hand and tangled it into Remus's hair, sealing the bond – the tether – as she pulled his face down far enough to kiss him, his blood upon her lips. He made a sound of shocked protest at the idea of kissing a minor, taking no part in the kiss as he held his hands up in surrender, taking them off of her to avoid having anyone think he was forcing himself upon her. He was panicking, Hermione knew, when she felt the rush of lycanthropic magic wash through her, tangling around her, tethering her to this world and to him for the rest of her natural life.

Remus's lips were soft against hers, she noted, soft and slightly chapped. He tasted like chocolate when she licked his lower lip, sweeping her tongue into his mouth and feeling the bond-magic surge. She could feel his power as a werewolf rushing into her, protecting her, claiming her, tethering her to him as the ritual was complete.

When the rush stopped, Hermine slumped in his arms, her body weak and limp, her magic all but spent. She'd depleted herself, she knew. Everyone was shouting in shock, Dorea Potter hexing more and more Death Eaters with Hermione's wand. Hermione laid weakly in Remus's arms, drifting toward delirium when he stared down into her face, his eyes wide with horror when he realised what she'd done. He sat awkwardly upon the stone before the Veil, his arms loosely cradling her. He looked from Hermione toward the four additional members of the Potter family and back again, his brow furrowed. She could tell he didn't understand how she'd called them back from the Veil, or what that had to do with her biting him and snogging him. She could tell he wanted to know if this was even real.

"They'll live," Hermione breathed to him. "I'm sorry for surprising you. I know you'll be angry, later, when you understand the full extent of what I've done. But they'll live. They'll all live, Remus. Harry has his family back. You and Sirius have them back, too."

The last remaining Death Eaters all Disapparated with a sharp crack when they realised what had happened, fleeing in fear over what she'd done and likely planning to report to Voldemort that a mudblood like her had just revived two generations of dead Potters, bringing them back to life and robbing him of the deaths he'd cast upon James and Lily Potter. She wondered if, even now, his soul screamed with their return. She'd read somewhere that those who were revived in this manner were, in part, paid for with the pain of those who'd murdered them. Dorea and Charlus might've died of illness, but James and Lily had been murdered and Voldemort's soul would scream as the rips he'd created with their deaths suddenly sprung back together, purging him of their tears and causing him no small amount of pain to do so. Hermione knew, dimly, that she'd just painted a large target on her back and she knew that if she wanted to avoid ever having to perform magic like this again, she was going to have to amend her virginal status as soon as possible.

"How did you…?" Remus stared at her, seeming shocked, horrified, and awed all at once. He looked in the direction of the runes she had painted in Harry's blood at the front of the Veil before looking up at James, Lily, Charlus and Dorea. "Hermione…. Blood magic?"

Hermione nodded weakly. "Go to them, Remus. They are your family as much as Harry's. You can put me down. I'll live, now, because of you."

Remus stood, cradling her like a small child in his powerful arms and Hermione's head swam with dizziness.

"Prongs?" Sirius asked again, his voice alight with hope, but wary. He didn't seem to quite believe his eyes.

"Come on, Padfoot," James Potter grinned at him. "Don't give me that look. Just get over here."

Hermione watched from Remus's arms as Sirius Black gave a shout and threw himself at James Potter. Harry was on his feet, his mother's arms tight around him. He was crying, she knew; sobbing into her shoulder as Lily Potter clutched her son close. Dorea was binding the Death Eaters who'd been incapacitated but not killed, while Charlus smoothed a hand over Harry's hair affectionately before clapping James on the shoulder.

"Give her to me, son," he said, his voice low and deep, but pleasant and alight with affection.

Hermione realised he was speaking to Remus, whose arms were too full to hug any of the Potter's. She reached for Harry's grandfather willingly when the man moved to lift her from Remus's arms.

"You can set me down, Mr Potter," Hermione whispered to the man weakly. "I can stand. Be with your family. They've missed you. They need you."

Charlus Potter pressed a kiss to the middle of her forehead, startling her, before standing her on her feet but keeping a steadying hand upon her shoulder. When she didn't sway, he let her go and suddenly found himself with an armful of werewolf, Remus having thrown himself at the man in a tight hug. His chuckle was infectious, Hermione noted, watching Remus hug the man before rushing James and Sirius, slinging his long arms around his two best friends.

"Moony? That you, old boy?" James laughed, untangling an arm from around an openly crying Sirius to hug the werewolf. "Missed you, mate."

Hermione felt someone move over to stand beside her and she looked to her left to meet the grey eyes of Dorea Potter.

"Hermione Granger," the witch said softly, her eyes full of affection and appreciation. "You have done a very brave and very selfless thing, my dear. Thank you."

"I only wish it could've been done sooner," Hermione whispered, accepting her wand once more when the woman handed it over. "You… You know who I am?"

"Being beyond the Veil didn't prevent us all from looking over into this plane, my dear. We know everything you've all been up to. You have been a true to friend to my grandson all his life. And now you've tethered yourself to my family by bringing us back, and also to Remus, to my third son, through that little binding ceremony you performed. Tethering yourself to this realm rather than moving to the next, yes? A wise decision to have done so with Remus; his lycanthropy will surely prevent the Powers That Be from calling you to the Beyond now."

She nodded toward Remus where he, Sirius and James were still hugging. Hermione smiled slowly.

"I didn't want to die just yet when it could be avoided," Hermione whispered. "I think Harry might've been a bit put out with me for returning his family to him but not sticking around to meet them."

Dorea laughed softly. "Indeed, he would've."

"I don't imagine Remus will be quite as thrilled with me when he realises the full extent of what the tether does, both to him and to me, but there was no other way. But don't let me keep you, Mrs Potter," Hermione told her tiredly, managing only to stay on her feet because the exchange of magical energy with Remus and the injection and formation of a little wolf inside herself, all her own, was giving her some small amount of strength. Without them, she would surely have slipped in a coma or into death, by now. "Be with your family. Meet Harry."

The elder woman smiled at her, reaching to cup Hermione's cheek tenderly for a moment, her grey eyes kind and full of love that Hermione didn't feel she'd earned, before releasing her. Hermione looked on, light-headed, as Sirius and Remus released James and converged on Lily, wrapping the simultaneously laughing and crying witch into their combined embrace while Harry flew into James's arms, his arms around his father's middle, his face buried in James's chest as he hugged him tight enough to make James wince ever so slightly.

Charlus and Dorea hugged each other, smiling fondly at their family. Hermione didn't doubt for a moment that Sirius and Remus were as much their sons and as loved as James was, adopted or not. The rest of the Order were in shock and Hermione squeaked when Neville came up to her, his nose still bleeding, before he pulled her into a tight hug. Hermione hugged him back, uncaring about the blood on his person and leaning on him heavily. She'd have offered to heal his nose for him, but she wasn't sure she could spare the magic that the healing spell would cost her, simple as it might be.

"I don't know what you did or how you did it," he said, his voice thick with the blood-nose. "But no one will ever forget this, Hermione. Are they real? Are they… alive?"

"They're alive, Neville," Hermione nodded gently, leaning on him as Ron and Ginny converged upon her too while Luna continued to watch the arch as though hoping her mother might step through it. Hermione wished she could bring the witch back for her friend, but she was too drained and Luna wasn't in her darkest hour.

"How did you… Hermione… what did you _do_?" Ron whispered, taking her from Neville's arms and crushing her to himself as though he knew how very close she'd come to dying tonight.

"I brought them back," she murmured. "Blood magic."

Right at that moment, Arthur Weasley converged upon his children, pulling Ginny and Ron into tight hugs of relief that they were alive and mostly unharmed. Neville took her hand once more, and Luna moved over to hold the other hand.

"How much trouble do you suppose we'll be in?" Luna asked softly after a little while of watching the Potter's reunion while the Order began ensuring the captured Death Eaters wouldn't get away.

"Loads," Neville laughed. "But I think this might just deflect some of the fury when they all gape in open-mouthed shock."

"Come on, you lot," Moody's growling voice came from behind them a little while later. "We've got to get out of here before the Aurors arrive."

"Is Dumbledore here?" Hermione asked softly, her strength flagging as she swayed where she stood, growing dizzier by the second. She feared she might lose consciousness before she could explain the ritual and what she had done, before she could assure everyone that there was no harm and that this wasn't black magic, but the purest form of Light Magic, bright and gleaming and beautiful, no matter the call for blood sacrifice and her own life essence to achieve this outcome.

"He is, and he'll be wanting to speak with you, Granger," Moody warned her. "Don't know what you did, girl, but if I was still head of the Auror department, I'd have you arrested."

"What for?" Neville asked. "She did something amazing."

"Blood magic is highly illegal. Raising the dead, even more so. Don't know how you did it, witch, but you'll be in for a lot of questions before this night is through."

Hermione supposed that was true, but before she could offer a word in her own defence, Sirius Black appeared, shoving Moody aside and throwing himself at Hermione. He was still crying, though he now wore a grin so wide Hermione feared it would break his face. He drew her into a hug so tight that her ribs ached and Hermione winced when he tangled in his fingers into her hair, pressing an adoring kiss to the middle of her forehead before hugging her all over again.

"Thank you," Sirius muttered into her neck. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'll never forget this, Hermione."

Before she could properly hug him back, Harry appeared, jostling his godfather aside. Sirius released her easily enough, bounding back over to James and hugging the man again, apparently overcome with joy. Harry held onto Hermione's shoulders loosely, peering into her face with a look of awe, happiness, gratitude, and the vaguest hint of worry.

"How?" he whispered breathlessly. If he minded that he was covered in blood, or that she'd kissed him, or that she'd performed an ancient ritual when she could have been saving his life, he didn't say so.

Hermione smiled weakly into her best friend's familiar face, noting that beyond him, James really did look almost identical, but for relative age.

"It doesn't even matter how," Harry decided before she could even begin to explain the magic, where she'd read about it, or how it was by mere chance of circumstance and fate that she'd been able to pull it off at all. "It doesn't matter, just… just tell me, Hermione… will they live? Can they leave this chamber? It's not just some temporary thing that lets me hug them only to have them return to being dead again in a few hours, right?"

"They are now as they ought to have been, Harry." Hermione whispered, her knees shaking as she weakened further, the dizziness threatening all the more as Luna and Neville were apparated away by Tonks and Kingsley. Beyond Harry, Arthur took Ginny and Ron with him, whether to the Burrow, Headquarters, or back to Hogwarts, she didn't know. "They will live out their lives as though they'd never died. They'll live, Harry. They can take you home and you can all move into some big house where you can be a real family. You'll never have to go back to the Dursley's. You'll never have to wonder if you and your Dad have anything in common, or what your Mum's treacle tart might taste like, or what it feels like to be tucked into bed and kissed goodnight by people who love you. They're back from the dead. They can still die again, same as anyone, but as long as they don't go facing off against You-Know-Who, or... I don't know, falling down some steps and breaking their necks, then they will live. Your grandparents originally died of Dragon Pox, but there are vaccines now that they could get to ensure it doesn't claim them again. You've got your family back, Harry."

Tears leaked from behind Harry's shattered and broken spectacles. His smile was wobbly, his chin trembling. He pulled her to him and hugged her so tightly that she couldn't breathe. Hermione went into his embrace willingly, breathing him in and not even noticing the blood all over him.

"Thank you, Hermione," he sobbed. "I don't know how you did it, but Merlin's beard, a thousand times, thank you! I... I don't even have... I love you, Hermione. No one could ever do anything for me that will be better than this. Gods, you're brilliant and I love you!"

He held her up when her knees buckled, pulling back just a little to stare into her face as tears leaked from her eyes too, cuddling into him and needing strength, lest she drift into unconsciousness.

"Oh, you're... are you hurt?" Harry frowned, wiping his eyes on his sleeve. "You're trembling, Hermione. And you're cold to the touch. Are you alright?"

Hermione shook her head, her eyes closed.

"Hand her over, Harry," Remus's voice was quite. "That magic nearly took her life, son. She's weak and she needs rest and time to heal. Her magical core is greatly depleted. We need to get you all out of here."

Harry released her, surrendering her to Remus's arms. Hermione's head spun again when Remus stooped, scooping her into his arms bridal style and nudging Harry back toward his parents. James opened his arms for Harry and Sirius took hold of James, Lily and Harry, intent on apparating them back to Headquarters, Hermione suspected. Moody took Dorea and Charlus, since none of them currently had wands and therefore couldn't apparate.

"Remus?" Hermione murmured gripping tightly to his arm and burrowing her face into his chest. "I know that you'll be angry with me shortly, when you realise what I've done… but… please don't hate me."

Remus seemed shocked, Disapparating them to the street outside Number Twelve before staring into her eyes for a moment.

"Hermione, you've returned to me four of the people I love when I'd believed them dead and gone from me forever," Remus said softly. "I could never hate you when you've done something so monumental and selfless. I don't understand why you bit me or why you… kissed me, but I'm sure you'll explain in good time."

Hermione nodded, dizzier than ever, feeling the blackness rushing up to engulf her. She snuggled into his chest even further as he carried her up the front steps and into the house, losing consciousness just as they crossed the threshold.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Those of you who went out of your way to point out that the canon-names of James's parents are actually Fleamont and Euphemia, please know that I reject your reality and substitute my own. I will not and can not accept the idea of naming characters in a similar manner to venereal diseases. DOREA AND CHARLUS POTTER ARE THE ONLY POTTERS I KNOW!**

 **In other news, thanks ever so much to all of you who took the time to read and review this story. I'm so thrilled that you like it and I can't wait to see what you make of this chapter.**

 **xx-Kitten.**

* * *

 **Tethered**

 _By Kittenshift17_

* * *

 **Chapter Two**

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"My lord!" Bellatrix Lestrange screeched, dashing through Malfoy Manor in search of her master. Her husband and her brother-in-law were dead. Her wretched, Blood-Traitor Aunt had murdered them, was _alive_ , had risen from the dead! Worse, it had all been achieved thanks to some no good little mudblood.

"MY LORD!" Bellatrix screamed, dashing into the drawing room and finding her master panting and writhing in agony upon one of the couches. Lucius was on her heels.

"My lord, they're alive!" Bellatrix shrieked. "The Potters are alive. A mudblood raised them from Beyond the Veil inside the Death Chamber. Rodulphus and Rabastan are dead! The others were captured."

She almost missed the way her master's wand flicked, even amid his agonised writhing, flicking his wand at her and Lucius, bringing them both to their knees. Bellatrix screamed out her own agony when the Cruciatus curse took her, driving a million hot knives through her flesh. As she screamed and she writhed and sobbed until she wet herself before her master, Bella's mind's eye burned with the sight of her wretched Aunt firing the killing curse at Bella's husband and she swore that Dorea Black would pay for all she'd done. She would pay with her life, and the little mudblood bitch who'd brought Dorea back would be next.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

Remus Lupin leaned against the wall, still cradling the unconscious form of Hermione Granger. She'd lost consciousness as he entered the house, but when he'd tried to set her down she'd writhed as though she were in the throes of death, stopping only when he picked her up once more. Remus didn't mind – though he didn't understand – because the girl was so slight that she weighed barely anything.

Tonks was watching him from across the room, her attention fixed on him rather on the marvellous sight of James and Lily, alive once more. She glared at Hermione, rather than fixating on the brilliant view of Dorea and Charlus, seriously discussing with Dumbledore that they were, indeed, alive and well and that it would be up to Hermione to explain the how of the situation.

Poppy Pomfrey was bustling about the kitchen, treating the wounded, and Molly was fussing with fixing everyone something for dinner, always working out her own moods with a spatula in one hand, her wand in the other, and the intent to feed an entire starving horde. Harry's wounds had been healed by James when he'd stepped through the Veil, Lily channelling her magic with her husband's and saving their son's life.

Harry was beside himself, alternating between leaning into the embrace of one, or both of his parents, and the rest of the time simply staring at them as they sat and smiled and laughed and explained that they loved him and that they'd never leave him again.

"Moony," Sirius whispered from beside him, having retreated after Poppy had examined all four Potters and declared them all in perfect health. "Moony, they're back. They're really back."

He'd been saying that since they'd come into the house, over and over again. Remus knew his best friend was beyond thrilled to see them once more. Not that he blamed him. James and Lily were the brother and sister-in-law he'd been aching with missing for the past fourteen years. He adored the pair of them more than anyone or anything in the world other than Sirius and Harry. That she'd somehow brought back Dorea and Charlus too, in perfect health once more, was perhaps Hermione's most surprising and biggest accomplishment.

"I know, Pads," Remus murmured. "We've got them back. We've finally got them back."

"How did she do it?" Sirius asked, looking away from James and Lily to peer down into Hermione's smooth, slumbering visage with utmost adoration. "How did she do it, Moony? I've never heard of anything like this ever happening before."

"I think we all want to know that, Padfoot," Remus said softly, peering into Hermione's small face too and wondering how she could possibly have even known anything about Blood Magic, let alone practiced it _and_ survived. "I think we all want to know just how she did it and how she isn't dead. I always knew she was brilliant and unerringly bright, but this is something else entirely."

"If she ever wakes, I swear I'll never tease her for being a bookish nerd ever again," Sirius vowed softly. "Merlin's beard, I'll spend the entire Black fortune on her, giving her anything and everything she could ever want for, and every book her little heart desires if she'll just wake and assure me that Prongs and Evans aren't going anywhere anytime soon."

Remus smiled at his best friend, knowing the feeling. He might not have a fortune to heap upon the girl – though he knew Hermione would never accept Sirius's extravagant gifts, regardless – but Remus himself couldn't be more grateful to her even if she were suddenly to make him the richest man alive. He had his family back. They might not be his by blood, but they were his family as much as they were Sirius's and Harry's. He loved them. He'd missed them. He couldn't believe his eyes as he stared at his friends, taking joy from the simple sight of them breathing.

Indeed, while Dumbledore looked worried and understandably concerned by the turn of events, and while everyone else was thrilled beyond measure to have the Potter's among them once more, there was one face that didn't smile. Remus didn't doubt that everyone who'd been in that chamber had seen the magic Hermione had performed. He also didn't doubt that as surely as they'd seen her peck Harry on the lips, they also seen her bite Remus himself and then snog him.

Remus could still taste her upon his lips, the taste of blood and magic mixed with something sweet and heady. He'd been beyond shocked by the bite, and terrified of the kiss. She was only sixteen. She was just a kid. She'd been his student and he'd never entertained an impure thought about the witch until he'd suddenly found her lips upon his. No one had asked about it yet. They were all too intent on ensuring the Potters would live and on healing the wounded.

But there was one among the Order who didn't look thrilled or even happy. Across the room, leaning against the kitchen counter with her arms folded over her chest and a slightly narrowed-eye expression was Nymphodora Tonks. She didn't look pleased. Remus knew she'd seen Hermione kiss him. He knew the witch had questions he couldn't answer, including just why it was that when he'd tried to set Hermione down, she'd begun to convulse.

No, Tonks didn't look happy, she looked jealous. Her hair was tinged green and she was frowning, her eyes fixed on Remus as he leaned against the wall, cradling Hermione in his arms. Remus avoided her accusatory gaze. He knew the usually purple-haired metamorphmagus had feelings for him. He'd been assigned to guard duty with her often enough to have smelled her attraction to him even if she hadn't indicated more than once that she fancied him.

If he was honest, it embarrassed him more than anything else. He was a werewolf. He didn't have a job, he was poor, he lived off Sirius most of the time, and he was entirely too dangerous for someone like her. She was vivacious and funny. She was clumsy as a troll, and she was as sweet as pie most of the time. She was clever and pretty and there was a whole list of reasons that he could fancy her, if he allowed himself. But he refused to allow it. He refused to let her get her hopes up. No matter what she might say about not caring, one way or the other about his lycanthropy and how it didn't affect her feelings, she was too brilliant to be ruined by someone like him. He had no intention of ever marrying or of siring children.

He knew she wanted both. And so he'd ignored her attentions, discouraged her advances, and done everything he could to change her mind about her feelings. Nothing had helped, and it was clear that she was now jealous of the little school-girl currently unconscious in his arms. Remus didn't rightly know why, but her obvious jealousy of a girl even younger than herself who had far better prospects and even less chance with Remus, bothered him.

He'd always loathed anyone who displayed jealousy, finding it a most abhorrent emotion. The idea that this witch fancied him enough and was irrational about it enough to grow upset over him holding an unconscious child made him angry, if he was being honest. Hermione might've kissed him, but since he'd never had any hint of a clue that Hermione fancied him, Remus didn't think that she'd done it out of a sudden and driving need to snog him. No, much like the way she'd kissed Harry, her kiss upon his lips had served a purpose. It had sealed some kind of magical ritual she'd initiated with her bite and he'd felt his wolf-magic surging into her, burrowing in and making a home for itself inside her skin as surely as his own wolf was at home inside his.

He suspected that ingesting his blood would've made Hermione more than a little lupine and he feared just what sort of reality she would wake up to.

"Remus, love," Poppy smiled kindly. "I need you to put her down. I need to know the extent of the damage she's done to herself and whether she sustained any injuries."

"She convulses when I try to set her down, Poppy," Remus told the other woman quietly.

"And doesn't wake up?" Poppy asked. "She's not simply sleeping? Merlin's beard, she's not… dead… is she?"

The woman's eyes went wide and every eye in the kitchen turned to him.

"She's alive. I can feel her heart beating. Her breath is shallow, but her heartbeat is steady. But she's not conscious, Poppy."

"Well, set her down just the same, I can cast a charm to stop the fits. I need to examine her," Poppy said.

Remus felt the strangest urge to hold Hermione closer, and indeed, he felt the oddest sense that his wolf wanted him to growl at the medi-witch and warn her away. That was _not_ a good sign. Hurrying to the table, watching the way everyone pulled back out of his way, Remus laid her down gently upon it, noting the way Dorea reached to card a hand into Hermione's wild curls while Lily took one of her hands. Harry took the other, staring at his best friend intently. As soon as Remus ceased touching her, Hermione's body convulsed, shuddering and fitting.

"Touch her again," Poppy instructed him, jostling James aside to get at Hermione. Remus did as he was told, putting one hand upon her stomach to hold her steady, the other resting on her knee.

She stopped convulsing immediately.

"Interesting," Poppy muttered. "Let go again, dear."

Remus did so and once more the tiny witch convulsed, upsetting everyone at the table. As soon as he touched her again, she stopped.

"Well, you'll just have to hang onto her while I examine her, then," Poppy declared, jostling Remus himself before she began casting diagnostic charms over the little witch. "Oh dear. Oh… this is terrible. Goodness, child, what have you done to yourself?"

Unconscious, Hermione offered no answers.

"She glowed purple," Ron spoke from across the table where he reached for Hermione's shoulder, touching it lightly in silent support. "When she cast those spells the Veil blew the other way and she was glowing purple and… I'd call it howling, but it was too high pitch. Didn't rightly sound like screaming, either."

"Did she touch anyone while she was casting?" Poppy asked, frowning as she flicked her wand to heal two broken toes that she found upon the girl, in addition to knitting up a nasty gash upon her thigh where she must've caught a slicing hex.

"She was touching me," Harry offered. "She wrote on the floor using my blood and she grabbed my head, pulling me up to her… She um… she kissed me, actually."

"Before or after casting the spell?" Poppy frowned.

"During the casting. She painted out the runes in my blood and she was chanting some spell. Midway through it she kissed me and then everything went crazy. That was when she started glowing and the Veil blew and then Mum and Dad appeared," Harry explained.

"What sort of kiss was it, Harry?" Dumbledore asked quietly, seeming intrigued.

"Uh… well, I don't… I mean, I'd been coughing up blood so, you know, kind of… ah… wet?" Harry said, blushing.

Remus couldn't help the snort that escaped him while James began to chuckle and even Charlus looked amused. Ron snorted too, and Sirius chortled.

"He means what sort of kiss in regard to how involved it was, Harry," Sirius told him. "Did she snog you and stick her tongue in your mouth, or what?"

"Uh… no," Harry frowned. "She just pressed her lips to mine for a few minutes. No tongue."

"I don't suppose that any of you know whether or not it was her _first_ kiss?" Minerva asked from the doorway, having just arrived with Augusta Longbottom and Xenophilius Lovegood in tow to see to their charges.

"Is that important?" Ginny wanted to know, leaning into her father's embrace at the other end of the table, looking spent.

"It's exceedingly important," Dumbledore said. "Miss Granger has just brought four people back from the dead, Miss Weasley. Anything that might explain how she achieved it is vitally important."

"As far as I know, she's never kissed anyone until now," Ginny said softly. "But she doesn't tell me everything. She might've snogged Krum when she was dating him."

"But you're not certain?" Minerva asked. "If that _was_ her first kiss then it would surely mean… Albus, you don't think…?"

"Until she wakes we cannot be certain, however it would seem to me, given that Dorea, Charlus, James and Lily were the only ones to have returned through the Veil, that the kiss between Harry and Hermione was her first and that it was the binding magic used to activate the magic to restore them to this world."

"One little kiss could do that?" Ginny asked, her eyes wide.

"Oh, no," Dorea shook her head fondly. "No, what Hermione achieved was done through Blood Magic and, if I'm not mistaken, the purest form of Life Magic – the type usually reserved only for the conception of a child. To have given the four of us life once more, it would've been. Were the kiss Hermione's first, it will have linked her to the Potter bloodline, allowing her to summon the four of us from Beyond the Veil. However, a kiss is often used for the sealing of bonds and tethers. Writing in Harry's blood began it, and kissing him sealed it, activating the magic."

"Then why did she snog Remus?" Tonks asked, no small amount of bitterness in her voice.

Remus closed his eyes, not at all looking forward to where the conversation as about to go.

"Remus?" Minerva asked, her nostrils flaring slightly as though she suspected him of foul play.

"Now, don't get huffy there, Minnie," Sirius warned. "Remus's hand were up in surrender and he took no part in the snog Hermione pinched from him."

"Why did she kiss you, Remus?" Poppy asked, urgently. "What was she doing? Was the magic still at play?"

"No," Remus shook his head. "That Veil was wrapping around her and I was dragging her away. She'd stopped glowing purple and she was slumping into it, spent. I grabbed her and dragged her free but while I was dragging her, she bit me."

"She _bit_ you?" Poppy asked, her eyes widening in alarm. She stopped casting over Hermione and turned to him. "You said she bit you? Where, Remus?"

Remus moved his hand from Hermione's knee, hovering it over her a moment to ensure she wasn't going to convulse, before showing them all his right forearm where a perfect circle of Hermione's teeth marks were scabbed over, the entry point of each tooth into his flesh visible.

"It's a perfect circle," Poppy frowned. "This is more than just the bite of someone in pain or trying to defend themselves, Remus. This was a very deliberate bite. She meant to puncture the skin. Oh, Merlin!"

Poppy suddenly paled before turning back to Hermione and casting some more complicated charms over her.

"Tell me you didn't, you foolish, brilliant girl!" Poppy muttered. "Remus, did she ingest any of your blood?"

Remus sighed heavily before he answered, bracing for the reactions. "Yes," he whispered.

Gasps sounded from around the table, his fellow Order members knowing just why that was a bad thing. He was a werewolf, his blood carried the lycanthrope virus and even on a New Moon day, it was infectious to others. The girl wouldn't be a werewolf, but she would be more than a bit lupine.

"She kissed you _after_ biting you, Remus?" Poppy asked, looking desperate now.

Remus nodded, his brow furrowed.

"Is that bad?" Harry asked, and Remus would forever be grateful that the boy was so utterly ignorant of his affliction, uncaring at all that Remus got furry and turned into a rabid beast once a month.

"Ingesting my blood will make her like me," Remus offered quietly. "She'll emit certain, wolfish traits around the full moon."

"I thought you could only turn other people into werewolves if you bit them when you'd transformed," Harry frowned at him. "Hermione's a werewolf now?"

"No," Poppy shook her head. "No, you're right about how the infection is transferred, Mr Potter. But the virus is always in Remus's system, in his blood. If Hermione ingested any of it, she'll pick up certain lycanthropic traits, but she won't transform. She will just crave her steak a little rare, and be a little more sensitive to sounds and smells leading up to and during a full moon. She'll experience many of Remus's symptoms, but without the transformation."

"Oh," said Harry, still frowning.

"Then why did she kiss him?" Tonks pushed.

Remus was surprised when it was Dorea who spoke up.

"She needed a tether," the woman said softly, her voice powerful with her raw magic even when she was calm and happy. "The magic the girl performed to bring the four of us back to this world was extensive. Life-Magic requires a sacrifice of her very life-force, just as the conception and carrying of a child drains a mother's life-force. In addition to that sacrifice, Hermione had to drag our souls through the Veil. That takes power and it will have depleted her magic. This ritual, and I believe I know which one she read to learn it, usually costs the life of the Summoner when this practice takes place."

"This has happened before?" Harry asked, his eyes wide as he looked at his grandmother.

"Of course, darling. You didn't think the Veil was moved into the Department of Mysteries, did you?" Dorea smiled indulgently. "The entire Ministry – the entire city – was built around it. Once upon a time, millennia ago, it was a more common practice. There are a number of requirements for the magic, of course. The Summoner must be a muggleborn witch. She must be virginal. She must be selfless and must enter into the ritual of her own volition without any external force acting upon her to do so. She must use the blood of a magical person who is in his or her darkest hour – on the doors of death themselves – and she must bind herself to their bloodline in order to summon back those from the Veil who died of unnatural causes.

"Charlus and I both succumbed to Dragon Pox long before our time. As you can see, we are restored to how we were prior to ever contracting the virus. James and Lily were both murdered and as you know, were both only twenty-one when they died. They have been revived to that age, as though they'd never been dead, because they died of unnatural causes when Voldemort murdered them. You will notice, though, that no one else of our bloodline fell back through. The only ones she could summon had to be magical, had to have died of unnatural causes and must be of direct blood relation to you, Harry, because she used your blood and sealed the bond with your kiss.

"But it takes a toll. It is no accident that she is unconscious. She's lucky to be alive. She will be weakened for a long time, after what she did. To have managed such a feat of monumental magical power at such a young age is… unprecedented. The ritual _ought_ to have claimed her life – a debt to the Grim Reaper is owed, for she recalled those he had claimed for his own. In the histories of this ritual, the life of the Summoner is usually given over in exchange."

"She…" Harry's eyes widened. "Enacting this spell would've… she'd have _died_ to bring you all back to me?"

Dorea nodded at her grandson.

"Your friend is one of a kind, Harry, my love," Dorea told him, smoothing her hand through his hair affectionately. "She'd have died had she not managed to tether herself to this world."

"When she kissed me?" Harry frowned. "Is she going to be... tethered… to me? What does that mean? She's got to marry me or something?"

"No, son," Charlus's voice, low and deep and soothing to the ear calmed some of the mounting tension as it festered in the kitchen. "She bound herself to our bloodline to activate the spell. She is, and forever will be, a Potter by blood. Those runes she painted aligned her to us, tied her to our family tree. For all intents and purposes, she counts as the closest thing you have to a sibling."

"She's… my sister, now?" Harry asked, looking all the more awed.

"Close to," Charlus nodded. "But that binds her to our bloodline, not to anyone of us individually, see? It's not a tether."

"Then how is she tethered?" James was frowning now too, and Remus would admit he was curious himself.

"She's tethered herself to Remus," Dorea said softly, her kind eyes shifting over to meet Remus's green ones. "Tethering yourself to another person isn't easy. We wizards can't actually achieve it with just anyone. We can be bonded, in blood or in marriage, but we can't be tethered. Had she tried to tie herself to anyone else in that chamber tonight, she'd have died, and it's likely that whomever she tied herself too would also have died."

"She tethered herself to me because I'm a werewolf?" Remus asked tightly.

"Yes, love," Dorea said. "You saved her life. She did more than just ingest your blood. She tied herself to you. For the rest of your lives, you will both be drawn to one another. It's not a soul-bond or a marriage bond or a blood-bond. It won't make you attracted to one another, or force you to become a couple or anything so outrageous. But for the rest of your lives, you will long for the other's company. Your lycanthropy makes you impervious to most spells, as you know. Through the tether, Hermione is too. The only reason she's still alive is because she is drawing on the magic of your wolf. I wouldn't be surprised if she's forming a wolf of her own this very moment."

"A wolf of her own?" Ron asked, alarmed. "You all said she wouldn't be a werewolf."

"You can have a wolf without becoming a full-blown werewolf," Remus sighed, his eyes lowering to fix upon Hermione, a frown upon his face. "She won't transform if she's got one, but she'll suffer the effects of the curse a little worse than anyone who's been savaged or exposed. It will change her… make her a little… wild."

"She's already more than a little wild," Neville could be heard muttering from the end of the table where his stern grandmother was holding his hand tightly.

"Mum?" Remus asked, looking up to Dorea, having learned to call her by the title at twelve.

"She won't be like you, darling," Dorea offered. "But the two of you are tethered. If she forms a wolf of her own, she will be stronger, less susceptible to regular magics. She, essentially, tied herself to you."

"As in, she can't ever be with anyone else?" Ginny asked, frowning.

"No, nothing like that. Tethering magic is… difficult to explain. It's not a bond. It doesn't join two people together, forcing them to be a couple, or preventing them from seeking others. But neither is it something to ignore. You will both, I imagine, seek out the other's company, even if you don't actually get along. You will both feel a strange sense of disconnection and discomfort when parted for too long. I believe you will also be able to draw magic from one another – that is the purpose of a tether, after all. She has been drawing on your magic, and the magic of your wolf, since she kissed you. The kiss sealed the tether, initiated by her bite and her willing ingestion of your blood. Do you feel drained, magically, Remus?"

Remus thought about it, trying to pinpoint the two magics intertwined and tangled together inside of him, that of his wizarding birthright, and that of the wolf all knotted together.

"No," he admitted. "I feel fine… I feel…better than I have done in years."

"Me too, actually," Sirius spoke from beside him.

"I suspect yours, Sirius dear, is a result having your brother back," Dorea said kindly.

"No," he shook his head. "I mean, it's great and all, git though Prongs happens to be." Sirius ruffled James's messy hair and everyone laughed when James swatted at him. "But this is more than relief or happiness or absolution from guilt. I don't just feel happier, Mum, I feel… younger. More alive. I can't explain it, but it's not just happiness. It feels like magic."

"You look younger," Ron noted, scanning his eyes over Sirius critically. "No offence, mate, but up until now you've looked like hell every time I've seen you, even when you were happy. You look like the years of grief that were hanging on your face have fallen off. There's less of those hard lines around your mouth and that crease between your eyebrows has disappeared. You look physically younger."

Remus looked over at Padfoot, blinking to see that Ron was right.

"So does Moony," Sirius pointed out, eyeing him in return.

"That's why she's still unconscious!" Poppy suddenly snapped her fingers, startling Remus so badly that he snarled and everyone in the room went tense.

"What?" Harry said. "Why?"

"The spell is still acting upon her. She's drawing on the power of her budding little wolf, and the magic that returned you four to life is still affecting the world as it makes adjustments for you to be in that life. Remus and Sirius look younger because the physical effects of grief and loneliness are being undone the same way we'd use a Repair charm on a broken plate. She's undoing the effects of ever losing James and Lily."

"But how?" Ron frowned. "She's not even conscious to be casting anything."

"The runes," Dorea exclaimed. "Oh, those runes were drawn in Harry's blood. Remus and Sirius were both adopted into our family by blood when they were teenagers, so she's healing them without meaning to. Until the magic is complete and the runes burn out, it will continue."

"They're not the only two who are affected," a low, silken voice came from the darkened hallway.

Remus gave another low growl of warning before Severus Snape stepped into the room, his dark eyes fixed upon Lily. If he hadn't recognised the voice, Remus was sure he might not have recognised the man. Snape's hard, pinched expression was melting away before their eyes when he stepped into the kitchen, the light illuminating the effects of Hermione magic. He could literally _see_ the grief melting off Snape's face. He'd never been handsome, and he never would be, but he'd aged prematurely with grief and anger over Lily's death.

"Severus?" Lily gasped in surprise at the sight of the man.

Remus noted the way James was mercifully quiet, avoiding baiting the man.

"Explain," Severus demanded of Dumbledore, his eyes never leaving Lily, but his demand nonetheless directed at the leader of the Order.

"I would think it were obvious, Severus," Dumbledore hummed softly. "The Potters have been restored to the land of the living. A fancy bit of spell-work from Miss Granger. But you know this already, you've heard Bella's report."

Severus blinked as though he were in utter shock, his eyes still upon Lily. Sirius and Harry were both in front of him, wands drawn, when he suddenly strode toward Lily, looking determined.

"Not another step," Sirius warned. "You touch her and you die, Snivellus. Give me a reason."

Snape curled his lip, his eyes never leaving Lily even as he leaned into the pair of wands digging into him.

"Sirius, I'm sure that's unnecessary," Lily said quietly, similarly staring at Severus. The only sign of her nerves was the way she clutched James's hand tightly.

Sirius glanced at Lily before slowly stepping to one side when she flicked her eyes, indicating that she wanted him to move. Snape closed the distance until he stood less than a foot from her, stooping to stare into her face where she sat. Hesitantly, as though he didn't dare believe or trust a hope that she could be real, he lifted a hand toward her.

Lily eyed the appendage and everyone held their breath as he moved his hand closer until his fingertips touched her cheek. He blinked again, looking confused. Remus realised that he thought it must be a dream.

"You're… alive?" he murmured, staring at her.

"I'm alive, Snape," she nodded before pulling back from his touch and leaning a little further into James.

Severus straightened suddenly, his eyes leaving Lily to settle upon Harry, who was on his feet, his wand still digging into Snape ribs, intent on protecting his mother.

"Potter, punch me," he instructed seriously.

Harry blinked.

"Gladly," James offered, jumping to his feet and balling a fist.

Harry beat him to it and Remus wondered at the amount of hatred between the pair that, despite being his teacher and an adult, and a bloody scary git when he flew into a rage, Harry's fist sailed through the air, colliding with Snape's cheekbone with a dull thwack. To everyone's surprise, and perhaps to Snape's credit, he didn't reel back or stumble from the blow, though the immediate swelling and the resounding crack as one of Harry's knuckles broke paid homage to the power behind the boys' punch.

Snape blinked again, looking back at Lily before touching her a second time. Remus realised that the man was trying to determine that this wasn't a dream and a sparkle of pity flared inside him. Remus understood. Had he not witnessed their return and hugged them to himself, he'd have doubted this wasn't a dream, too.

"They're alive, Severus," Remus told him quietly. "They've returned. They're alive once more."

"But…" Severus trailed off, glancing back at Harry and looking almost like he was going to ask the boy to punch him again. His eyes darted over to James, and Remus wasn't the only one shocked when Snape reached over and smoothed his palm against James's cheek.

"Look, Snape, I know I'm still bloody handsome, but paws off, yeah?" James taunted, despite his shock.

Severus looked surprised; anger, confusion, and happiness flashing across his face.

"You're alive," he said, stating the obvious in a way Remus was certain the man had never done before.

"Missed me, didn't you?" James smirked. "Go on, admit it. Being dead didn't mean we weren't still watching, mate. I know all about the number of times you swore that if Lily came back from the dead, you wouldn't even mind if I came back too, just as long as she came back."

Severus didn't even blush, though it was surely a secret he kept close to his chest. Sirius gave a shout of surprise and Harry's mouth fell open when, in spite of their foul history, Severus suddenly gripped the front of James's shirt and pulled him into a tight embrace. For his part, James looked shocked, his arms held out to the side in surprise before he awkwardly patted Snape on the back when the proud and volatile wizard laid his forehead on James's shoulder, the shuddering breath he drew belying the sobs he was holding back.

"Um…" Sirius said unintelligibly, frowning.

"I'm so sorry," Snape said, his usually silken voice hoarse with restrained emotion as he hugged James. In her chair Lily had begun to cry, tears trickling down her cheeks. Absently, James wiped at them with his free hand, smoothing a loving thumb across her cheek.

He took her hand when she reached for him, pulling her to her feet. Remus didn't know who at the table was the most surprised when James eased an apparently distraught Severus Snape out of his hold and into Lily's embrace instead.

"What the bloody hell is going on?" Sirius asked, sounding utterly bewildered and he sat down heavily in the chair James had vacated.

"It's a long story, Pads," James told him, making Sirius grin when he sat right down on Sirius's lap as though they were still stupid, overly-affectionate children as they'd been at Hogwarts. "And you're probably too thick to comprehend it all. Just accept the fact that Snape is actually _not_ as bloody thick as we always made him out to be and move on."

"You're bloody heavy, Prongs," Sirius complained, though he looped his arms around James's middle, refusing to let him up even as he laid his cheek against James's back.

"You're getting prettier before my eyes, Moony," James told him, grinning as his wife hugged her once best friend and James's schoolyard rival.

Remus blinked in return, his lips pulling at one corner into a crooked smile. "Thanks, Prongs."

James winked at him and Harry cried out when Poppy flicked her wand, healing his broken knuckle.

"Not to… uh… interrupt," Harry said, frowning at his mother and Snape for a long moment. "But… can we get back to Hermione. You said that the runes she drew are still drawing on her core-magic, making these sods all look younger? If she's already unconscious, it feels like maybe we should do something to stop that."

"She won't die," Dorea said softly. "Remus said he's not yet even feeling the effects of their tether, which means she's drawn enough magic to foster her own wolf, without yet drawing on his. A unique aspect of the tether is that Hermione literally cannot die for as long as Remus lives. It works both ways of course, Remus can't die unless Hermione does, too."

"Doesn't that mean they'll both live forever?" Ginny frowned.

"That's highly unlikely, though lycanthropes do have life-spans even longer than those of regular wizards, so she might very well make one hundred and fifty or even two hundred," Dorea said happily.

"This is all Granger's doing?" Snape voice asked as he slowly released Lily. Remus smirked when Sirius winced as Lily sat upon James lap, despite him being sat in Sirius's lap. The combined weight of the couple crushed the Animagus, but he didn't complain.

"Hermione resurrected them," Harry nodded, glancing at Snape as though fearing retribution for the punch. Snape didn't mention it, despite his rapidly blackening eye. "She… she's brilliant."

Right at that moment, Hermione arched under Remus's hand, her whole body bowing upward. A sharp gasp sucked between her teeth and her eyes shot open, immediately fixing upon Remus. He felt a sinking feeling of horror in the pit of his stomach when he noticed that, amid the rich chocolate shade of her brown eyes, a bright gold ring of the wolf encircled her pupils.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Thanks ever so much to all of you for your reviews and kind words. I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as the first two.**

 **xx-Kittenshift17**

* * *

 **Tethered**

 _By Kittenshift17_

* * *

 **Chapter Three**

* * *

Hermione winced as her body slumped back to the table, her hand shooting to Remus's upon her stomach. He was frowning at her with worry, and her friends were all gathered around her. She was weak, and she felt strangely depleted – almost empty. When Remus emitted a low groan she realised that, in waking, she'd begun drawing upon his magical core, his lycanthropic magic rushing up to fill her, replacing some of the power she'd spent.

"Remus, are you alright, dear?" Madam Pomfrey asked of him, her hand upon his shoulder.

Remus nodded. "You were right. She's pulling on my magic, now."

"Miss Granger, can you hear me?" Madam Pomfrey asked loudly. Hermione winced.

"Loud and clear, Madam Pomfrey," Hermione said. "Too loud."

She kept hold of Remus with one hand, the other going to the ear nearest the medi-witch and rubbing at the sudden ache.

"Hermione?" Harry asked, dropping back down in his chair beside her and reaching for her. He smoothed his fingers over her cheek and Hermione turned her head toward him.

"Harry," she smiled weakly. "Goodness, I can't tell if I'm seeing in triplicate or not with all you Potters on the loose."

Lily Potter began to laugh at the jab, and Hermione smiled at her best friend when Harry grinned.

"You could've died, Hermione," Harry said, though he was smiling at her teasing.

"I know," Hermione said simply, shrugging her shoulders and wincing when the movement hurt.

"Miss Granger, I need you to drink this," Madam Pomfrey instructed, handing her a potion phial. An Invigoration Draught, by the colour. Hermione sighed, knowing that the potion tasted awful.

"I'd really rather a cup of tea," she admitted, though she took the phial, using her grip on Remus's hand to pull herself up enough to drink without spilling it. He held her hand tightly, though it didn't hurt. Hermione could feel the magic pouring into her through him and she feared she might be taking too much from him when his cheeks grew pale.

"Let go, Remus," she said quietly, wiggling her hand in his to extract it from his grip. "You'll hurt yourself if you don't let go."

He blinked at her and she raised her eyebrows when she spotted his eyes. Their usual shade of mossy green was threaded through with a bright, canine-gold, like two brilliant opals. They were breathtaking to behold, but she knew it meant that man and wolf were at war inside him and that it was likely caused by what she'd done.

Pulling her hand firmly from his grip, Hermione fought the groan of discomfort that followed the removal of his touch against her skin. She hadn't read enough on tethering to know the full extent of what she'd exposed them both to, but she wasn't sure she liked how needy she felt, wanting to pull his hand back into her grip and clutch it forever.

"Are you seeing double, Miss Granger? Do you feel dizzy or lightheaded?"

"I feel like I might vomit, actually," Hermione admitted. She laughed weakly when Ron handed her an empty cauldron to barf into if need be. "Thanks Ron."

"What are friends for?" he grinned at her. "You alright? You look pale."

"I'll be alright. Erm… would anyone mind if I got off the table? I feel a bit like someone is about to break out the salt, the limes, and a bottle of tequila."

Sirius's bark of laughter was slightly muffled thanks to having both James and Lily Potter seated in his lap, but he was the only one who laughed. Mrs Weasley looked appalled, huffing slightly. Hermione didn't know what had been said while she'd been unconscious but she got the feeling they knew she'd tethered herself to Remus. Since Molly had always more than fairly hinted at the idea of Hermione one day marrying one of Molly's many sons, Hermione suspected the woman was less than pleased with her, no matter that tethers weren't sexual or romantic in nature.

"You're a bit young for body shots, treasure," Sirius told her.

"I'd rather you didn't move until I've finished examining you, Hermione," Madam Pomfrey said.

Hermione sighed. "I'm fine, I swear. Just tired. And hungry. Is there anything to eat? We missed dinner."

James Potter snorted.

"I think I like you, Hermione Granger," James said, sounding amused. "A girl after my own heart. Commits several crimes, performs extraordinary magical feats, almost dies in the name of selflessness just to make a friend happy, and when she comes to, her primary concern is food."

Everyone chuckled fondly at the idea.

"Can you sit up, Hermione?" Madam Pomfrey asked.

Hermione thought about it for a moment, frowning. She wasn't actually sure she could. She felt very weak, no matter the hunger.

"Maybe," Hermione sighed. "Goodness, what a lot of fuss. You could've just put me to bed upstairs and let me sleep it off, you know? My magic will need to replete itself, but I'd have been fine with a good sleep. I feel very silly, laid out on the table like this."

She struggled into a sitting position, watching as Harry, Ron, and Remus all moved as though they might assist her before Madam Pomfrey shooed them off, making her do it on her own. She clutched her head, groaning when she managed to sit up, her legs still stretched out before her. Hermione blinked when she opened her eyes, spying the majority of the Order of the Phoenix filling the room. Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall were both at the end of the table.

"Oooh, hello," Hermione greeted them all. "This just keeps getting better. Honestly, a bed would've been preferable, you know? Um… Professors, I'm not sure I'll be capable of the detentions I don't doubt you're planning to issue for some time. Probably not before the school year is out, actually."

"Miss Granger, I don't suppose you can tell us what became of Professor Umbridge?" McGonagall asked, her lips twitching as though she wanted to smile at Hermione's embarrassment.

Hermione paled even further in horror.

"Oh, Merlin! We led her into the Dark Forest and let the Centaurs carry her off. Goodness, but I suspect she's having a _very_ bad night."

She didn't know whether to laugh or cringe when, to her left, Professor Snape began to laugh out loud. "You handed her over to the Centaurs? That's… better than all the sticky ends I daydreamed up for that vile woman."

Hermione smiled weakly.

"I _suppose_ that someone ought to rescue her," Professor McGonagall frowned, looking at Dumbledore.

"I'll see to it," he nodded, though he didn't look overly thrilled about the idea either. "Hermione, can you shed any light on the current situation that brings Dorea, Charlus, Lily and James back amongst us?"

"Er…." Hermione frowned, still clutching her head.

She sighed when someone put a hand on her shoulder, not even needing to look to know it was Remus. Magic rushed through her again, giving her strength and making the dizziness recede.

"How much do you know?" she asked, ignoring the slightly suspicious glances that darted between her and Remus. She wondered idly if they'd given him the third degree yet.

"A good deal," Dumbledore said. "I assume you learned the ritual from within a book?"

"Oh… yes… I did," Hermione nodded slowly.

"Which book?" Several people asked at once.

"It's called _The Grimoire of Elladora Black,_ " Hermione said. "It's in the library upstairs. Remus… on the shelf by the desk in the back corner of the library, one row in from the corner, fifth shelf, high up near the ceiling. Seven books in from the end of the row."

"You've memorised the layout of the library upstairs?" Sirius asked, sounding amused. Hermione rolled her eyes at the teasing lilt in his voice.

"Given that I catalogued and rearranged the entire space, I'd like to _think_ I had memorised where every book happens to belong, Sirius. Unless you've been in there moving things again, in which case, I might smack you just as soon as I can reach."

"I wouldn't dream of moving your books, treasure," Sirius laughed, having moved them in the past whenever he went looking for some titbit of information. He had a wretched habit of forgetting to put the books away, or of putting them back on the wrong shelves whenever he managed to remember to re-shelf them.

"What were you doing reading the Black Family Grimoires, Hermione?" Dorea Potter asked her curiously. "That's very risky, what with you being muggleborn. They could've been cursed."

"I test them all before I read them," Hermione assured the woman. "I arranged the library by oldest to newest publication date; the oldest tomes at the back and the newest ones closer to the front. And then I began with the very oldest book and have been reading my way forward. It's been very fascinating, watching the discovery of different things appear in the books. The Grimoires have their own section, too, given their historical and familial significance. That, and I didn't want to risk the other books by setting them on the same shelf as the Grimoires. Most of them are traditionally bound."

Several members of the Order gasped in horror.

"Traditionally bound?" Harry frowned at her.

Hermione smiled at her best friend and his ever-present ignorance of the magical world.

"Traditionally, grimoires are bound in human flesh, Harry. They're like journals; a detailed venture in the magical feats of the owner of the grimoire. They were originally used to keep track of the types of curses placed on personal items, the types of curses placed on bloodlines, individuals, or entire races. They're logbooks, really, listing the types of powerful spells that witches and wizards were involved in during their lifetime. My understanding is that, upon turning seventeen and reaching majority, the Ministry presents each witch or wizard with one at the removal of the trace. They record automatically, too, so the magical feats of the individual are recorded. Personally, I think the idea a barbaric means of keeping track of known criminals. If you're ever summoned to the Ministry suspected of a terrible magical crime, they can demand to see your Grimoire as proof that you did or did not perform the spells. Until then, the Trace Office records your magic use."

"They keep track of every spell we perform, our whole lives?" Harry asked, aghast.

"They do until we're seventeen, at the Ministry. After that they give you a Grimoire, but if you get into big enough trouble, they can demand to see it," Hermione nodded.

"I didn't even know there were any of my ancestors Grimoires here," Sirius admitted.

"Oh, there are lots of them," Hermione said. "Almost fifty, all up there in the library. The oldest I could find were those of Elladora, Phineas Nigellus and Sirius Black I. Your mother must've been collecting them all. I thought I might get lucky and find the Grimoire of Isla Black, but she married a muggle, so your mother probably didn't deem her tome worthy of keeping."

"No, I imagine she took great delight in burning those of the family she deemed unworthy Blood Traitors," Sirius snorted.

Hermione blinked when, before Remus could head off upstairs to find the one she meant, being that next to her he probably knew the library better than anyone else, Dumbledore used a Summoning charm. The ancient tome came floating into the room a few short minutes later.

"This one?" he confirmed, showing it to Hermione.

Hermione nodded, taking the grimoire from him and leafing through it, searching for the passage within the text that detailed not Elladora's own magic, but a hand-written entry pertaining to Elladora's engagement of a muggleborn witch to return Phineas Nigellus to life after he'd been killed in a broom accident long before his time.

"My understanding of this particular ritual was that it called for a muggleborn witch to perform it," Dorea said while Hermione leafed through it, everyone trying to get a peek at the book.

"Oh, it does. I was surprised that Walburga hadn't tossed this grimoire out, actually. Elladora didn't perform the magic – she befriended a muggleborn to raise Phineas when he was killed," Hermione explained. "It was pencilled in by hand, most of it mere speculation of the events, given that the witch who performed the Summoning to revive Phineas did actually succumb to the ritual. Elladora also got a lot more dead relatives brought back that she bargained upon. It seems that many of the Black family ancestors were murdered, most of them by each other. The amount of people who returned to life after the ritual was astronomical. It's one of the reasons the Blacks are such an Ancient and Nobel house in spite of madness and outrageously rampant blood purity. Elladora's ritual raised more than twenty souls from beyond the veil, killing the muggleborn witch – a girl named Vivien – in the process because the Life Magic cost too much of her life-force all at once. There are detailed accounts throughout the other tomes that suggest most of those who were brought back didn't do anything decent with their second chance. More than a few actually killed each other all over again on sight."

Hermione leafed through, scanning the pages quickly, trying to find the detailed description of the ritual she used.

"Ah, here it is," she said. "Erm… shall I make a few copies so everyone can read?"

"You don't have the magical strength for a Geminio charm right now, Hermione," Remus informed her quietly, flicking his wand to duplicate the text ten times, passing them out to Dumbledore, McGonagall, the Weasleys, Dorea and Charlus, Harry, Snape, and Kingsley. He made to take the one from Hermine's grip to read for himself, but Hermione hung onto it, wanting to re-read it carefully.

Remus made a soft sound of amusement before reading over her shoulder, having shared a book with her more than once in the past when they got into a magical theory debate.

"This details different things to what you did, Hermione," Harry told her.

"Yes, well, Elladora was the one who willingly entered her Darkest Hour in order for the spell to work, so I doubt she remembered everything."

"Her Darkest Hour?" Ron frowned.

"She had to be dying," Hermione waved her hand impatiently. "She had to be in the throes of death, as Harry was after being hit with that Slicing Hex. A major artery nicked. He was bleeding out on the floor."

"And you didn't patch him up?" Ron asked, alarmed. "What if the ritual had failed?"

"Then we'd both be dead," Hermione said, frowning. "I didn't actually think about that. Sorry, Harry."

"I'm not complaining," Harry held up his hands. "I've got my parents _and_ my grandparents back. I'd almost die all over again if the first attempt had failed."

"I'd rather you didn't go risking your life so often, son," James told Harry, clapping him on the shoulder. Harry beamed.

"How did you know that tethering yourself to Remus would keep you from dying, Hermione?" Tonks asked and Hermione lifted her head when she caught the strange tone in Tonks's voice.

Hermione frowned slightly when she found the other witch eyeing her coldly. She didn't understand. She and Tonks had always been close. Hermione admired the other witch immensely and they'd often had lively discussions about boys, mean girls at school, and all the girly things that Hermione couldn't talk about with Harry and Ron. Now, however, the other witch was staring at her coolly, her eyes dark and her hair tinged green.

With a jolt, and a quick glance at Remus – whose hand tightened reflexively upon Hermione's shoulder at Tonks's address – Hermione realised the other witch was jealous. She must've seen the kiss she'd had to steal from Remus to complete the tethering ritual and taken it out of context.

"There's a footnote at the end of the passage," Hermione told her. "It hadn't been confirmed, mind you. But it was noted that tethering the magic and the soul of the Summoner to a half-breed – sorry, Remus – might've worked. Vivien tried tethering herself to her brother for the sake of her survival, but the large number of the Returned and the effects of the magic proved too much for both of them. The footnote was one of Elladora's personal theories. Since I didn't particularly want to die, and Remus happened to be close by in my time of dying, I gave it a go."

Tonks didn't look convinced.

"You were… winging this whole thing?" Remus asked, sounding incredulous.

Hermione turned to look at him.

"Please don't be angry with me," she whispered, knowing that she would need to have a private discussion with him about all this just as soon as everyone gave her a moment's peace.

Harry looked up from the book, frowning at her in confusion. "So, you didn't even know that it would work? You could have just died…"

"You could've killed Remus, too," Tonks said coldly.

"No, she couldn't have," Remus spoke up, his eyes narrowing as he lifted them to glare at Tonks coldly. "Magical depletion doesn't kill my kind. With or without proof that the tethering would work, picking me was the wisest choice. Werewolves are very hard to kill. There was never any chance that she could've killed me, and had she not done what she did, she'd be dead."

Everyone was silent for a long moment and Hermione she knew wasn't the only one feeling the awkward tension between Remus and Tonks. She knew Tonks had fancied Remus for months, but she hadn't expected the metamorphmagus to take one little kiss so personally. Tethering her life-force and her magic to Remus's didn't mean they were bound together as a couple or anything so outrageous. It just meant that they could borrow each other's magic. At least, she thought that was all it meant.

"Miss Granger, where on earth did you get the idea that you could even perform Blood Magic?" Professor McGonagall asked sternly. "Not only is it highly illegal, it's also incredibly difficult to control. You could've died!"

Hermione sighed, closing her eyes and subconsciously leaning into Remus's hold upon her shoulder. "Honestly, I didn't think any of us were going to make it out alive," she admitted. "I just… it popped into my head and I went for it."

"I'm sure that the rest of the questions we all have for Miss Granger can wait until she's feeling better," Madam Pomfrey said, once again casting several charms over her. "Why don't we give the kids something to eat and send them on upstairs to recover?"

"I can't go to bed now," Harry protested. "I have so many questions."

James snorted, lifting his wife out of his lap.

"There'll be plenty of time to answer them, son," James told him. "We're not going anywhere."

"What if you do?" Harry whispered, his eyes wide and worried as he peered at his parents, drinking in the sight of the two of them as James climbed off Sirius, who groaned and rubbed his legs as circulation returned.

"We won't, darling," Lily assured the boy. "You've all had a difficult day today, especially Hermione. She needs rest. If no one has anything further to add, I'd like to think the meeting could be over for the night, actually. I'd suggest that everyone takes the night to sleep on the news of our return and to accept it. It's a lot to take it, after all."

Everyone looked toward Dumbledore expectantly. Hermione noticed that he was frowning, looking between the copy of Elladora's Grimoire and Hermione. She suspected he had many more questions and that he didn't fancy the idea of being dismissed. Hermione yawned loudly for effect and his blue eyes fixed upon her, watching her over his half-moon spectacles. She suspected that he didn't know what to make of her actions or how to treat her, but it seemed as though the dotty, grandfatherly persona he cultivated had slipped just a little.

"Dinner is ready, anyway, Albus," Molly informed them all.

Faced off against Lily, Molly, and the rest of them who had a vested interest in the six children who'd run off to the Ministry and caused the biggest stir to hit the wizarding world since Harry had survived the Killing Curse, Dumbledore seemed to recognise the need for a regroup after some time to think.

"Meeting adjourned," he sighed, waving everyone away and getting to his feet. "Poppy, if you've finished seeing to the children, I believe I will require your assistance after retrieving Dolores from the depths of the Forest."

"Of course, Albus. I'll be along just as soon as I've ensured the health of everyone here," Madam Pomfrey said.

"Severus, I'll expect you in my office shortly regarding how Tom took this evening's turn of events," Dumbledore went on as he strode out of the room.

Everyone remained quiet as he left, the other members of the Order following after him until on the Weasleys, the Potters, the two Longbottoms, the two Lovegoods, Sirius, Remus, Hermione, Snape and Tonks remained. Hermione frowned, listening to Moody professing the need for constant vigilance, now more than ever. She had the strangest sense that Dumbledore was annoyed with her over what she'd done and how she'd restored the Potters to this world.

"Anyone else get the feeling he's not as thrilled about this as the rest of us?" Sirius asked before she could put the question to her friends.

"Thought it was just me," James replied, ruffling his own hair absently.

"He's afraid," Hermione murmured, her voice soft and almost missed but for the silence within the kitchen. Her mind was racing. "Take away the motivation of his favourite spy to return again and again into the viper's nest and you lose your spy. He's afraid that your return will either result in Professor Snape refusing to return to Voldemort's side, or, potentially worried that as happened the first time around, the relationship between James and Lily will drive Professor Snape to realign his allegiance to the Death Eater cause once and for all."

Snape levelled her a look that she was sure would reflect shock if he didn't hide his emotions so well.

"Just what do _you_ know, Miss Granger, about my motivations?" he asked in a low voice.

Hermione blinked, jolted out of her thought process to look up into the dark eyes of the Potions Master.

"I know that Hogwarts keeps extremely detailed records and student files, sir," Hermione answered. "I… erm… might've read up on James and Lily when I befriended Harry, curious about his history. I know that you and Lily were friends up until shortly before finishing Hogwarts, and I know that this lot," she jerked her thumb at Remus, Sirius and James, "tormented you on a daily basis, making it all the more unacceptable when Lily and James began dating and eventually went on to get married."

Snape's nostrils flared and the three Marauders all looked slightly alarmed and perhaps just the faintest bit ashamed, while Lily sighed.

"I also suspect that having you return to Voldemort's side for the sake of maintaining your role as spy might see you killed, Professor. After all, if _I_ know that your loyalty to him was broken with Lily's death, surely he knows that her return would be an irresistible opportunity to see you change your ways for the sake of appearing a better man in her eyes. Second chances and all that….and I'm going to stop talking now, before you hex me, sir," Hermione said, trailing off and blushing bright red when he looked rather like he wanted to do just that.

"You really _are_ an insufferable know-it-all, aren't you?" Snape asked coolly.

"I prefer the term 'widely read', sir," Hermione replied without thinking.

Sirius snorted and James sniggered just a little bit. Remus cleared his throat and Harry just looked utterly bewildered, obviously having very little idea about what was going on.

"Do you, indeed?" Snape asked, narrowing his eyes on her.

"I… sorry, sir. That was a bit out of line. I think I might still be a bit light-headed from the depletion," Hermione said, picking at a rip she'd torn in the knee of her jeans.

Snape's mouth twitched when she snuck a peek at him and Hermione blinked warily.

"If I weren't rather pleased with you right now, Miss Granger, I'd have you alphabetise and rearrange by year, every box of detention files up at Hogwarts backdating to the early 70s," he informed her.

"I already took that liberty, sir," Hermione blushed. "I… have a problem."

"More than one, I daresay," Snape replied, smirking now.

Hermione blushed.

"Severus Snape, you take that back this instant!" Lily demanded. "Don't pick on her!"

She didn't know who was the most shocked when Snape suddenly laughed, eyeing Lily for a long moment with a look mixed somewhere between exasperation over the idea that she thought she could boss him around, and adoration, as though the very notion of her speaking to him at all was novel. Given that she'd been dead for fourteen years, Hermione supposed she couldn't blame him.

"Off the table, Miss Granger," Snape instructed, surprising Hermione all the more when he reached over and took hold of both of her hands, tugging her gently from the table and steadying her when she was stood on her own two feet. "It's the height of bad manners to sprawl upon the dining table during dinner, Miss Granger. I'd have thought someone as widely read as you might've known that."

Hermione blinked when she realised he was teasing her, apparently more pleased with her than he felt comfortable letting on.

"Yes, sir," Hermione said, grinning in spite of herself.

"I'm very confused," Harry admitted from behind her.

"Something I'd have thought you'd have grown used to by now, Potter," Snape replied.

"Severus!" Lily stamped her foot. "Now you're mocking my son? Really?"

"I can mock your husband, if you'd prefer," Snape offered, smirking.

"Oh, sweet Circe," Sirius grumbled. "I'd forgotten what a right pain in the arse Snape was when he was in a cheery mood, as opposed to being perpetually miserable. If you're going to keep being cheery, Snape, I'm going to hex you just for spite."

"For old time's sake," James grinned wickedly.

"Try it," Snape invited. "I dare you."

He didn't look angry. Indeed, he didn't even reach for his wand or let go of Hermione's shoulders, as though he could sense the way her head was swimming once more.

"I'd prefer if we all held off on hexing one another, thank you," Madam Pomfrey said, though even she looked mildly amused. "Miss Granger is in no state for it."

"No one said we'd hex _her_ , Poppy," Sirius rolled his eyes. "We might make a shrine and worship at her feet, or maybe smother her in enough affection to get ourselves arrested for indecency, but we'd never risk hexing her. Not even for the sake of hexing Snape for old time's sake."

"Are you staying for dinner, Severus?" Mrs Weasley asked.

"Only, we'd hate to ruin the meal with your wretchedly high spirits," Sirius input.

"I should go," Professor Snape replied, glancing down at Hermione for a moment when she swayed slightly in his grip, not at all feeling well. "Are you swooning, Miss Granger?"

"Over you, Snape? Come on," Sirius rolled his eyes.

"I feel very dizzy," Hermione admitted. "Would anyone mind if I…"

Right at that moment, before she could finish her sentence, the blackness engulfed her once more.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Big shout out to Nevvy for making me a lovely fan-art image for this story. Many thanks to all of you for taking the time to read and review.**

 **xx-Kitten.**

* * *

 **Tethered**

 _By Kittenshift17_

* * *

 **Chapter Four**

* * *

"Well, there's a first time for everything, I guess," Sirius commented when Hermione did, indeed, swoon in Snape's hold.

Remus might've laughed if he wasn't so concerned for the little witch.

"She needs food," Molly declared. "She said she was hungry and she probably hasn't eaten since lunch."

"She skipped lunch today," Harry input. "She was trying to help me contact Sirius to see if he was alive and here instead of being held captive by Voldemort."

"Oh, for Merlin's sake!" Poppy huffed, flicking her wand and levitating Hermine back up onto the table. "All of you sit down and have some food this instant before anyone else swoons. _Enervate_."

Hermione groaned when she woke, frowning into Poppy's face. Remus found himself moving toward her and putting a hand upon hers without meaning to. She sighed at the touch and he got the feeling they would both be needing to do some research on the topic of tethers and their effects.

"Did I faint?" she asked weakly.

"You did," Poppy nodded. "The Invigoration Draught I gave you undoubtedly wore off. You need to eat something, dear."

"Gods, is Professor Snape still here? I'll never live down fainting on him," Hermione blurted and Remus smirked.

"I'll be sure to remind you of it often, Miss Granger," Snape said from down the table where he'd taken a seat with everyone else while Molly began serving everybody dinner.

"Oh, Merlin," Hermione whimpered, looking to Remus.

"Ignore him, Hermione," Remus smiled kindly. "That's what the rest of us do."

He dodged the hex Snape fired at him, laughing before flipping the dark-haired wizard the bird. He'd forgotten how hex-happy Snape could be with non-lethals when he was in high spirits, and the idea amused him more than it should. This was just the sort of behaviour that had gotten the git hexed in the first place all those times at Hogwarts.

When Poppy served Hermione dinner, levitating the girl carefully to sit beside Remus at the dining table, rather than letting her sit on it, Remus sat beside her. He didn't look at the witch before pressing his leg to hers under the table, thighs pressed against one another in a non-obvious display of support.

"You're going to drain your magic, too," she breathed just quietly enough not to be overheard by anyone despite the way Tonks was glaring at the two of them from down the table.

"Impossible," Remus informed the curly-haired girl beside him. "You need rest after your meal. You… we need to have a serious discussion when you're up for it, Hermione."

She nodded around a mouthful of mashed potatoes. "You're not angry with me, are you?"

Remus frowned slightly. No, he wasn't angry. He was confused. And worried. And very aware of the fact that she was nineteen years younger than him and that just two years ago, he'd been her Professor. Worse, he was acutely aware of the soft suppleness of the thigh pressed against his own and despite the food and the butterbeer he was ingesting, he could still taste her on his tongue.

"I'm not angry," he assured her. "But there are a number of issues that need to be addressed."

She nodded her agreement before nudging him ever so slightly and flicking her eyes toward Tonks, who had briefly taken her eyes off them when Sirius had unceremoniously tossed a dinner roll at her because she was being so surly and was making everyone uncomfortable.

He glanced at the witch before looking back at Hermione.

"I'll handle it," he whispered. "Don't let it bother you. You've done nothing wrong, she'd just being petty and childish."

Hermione coloured slightly, looking down at her food before turning her attention to the tales that James and Charlus were telling about being dead and how they still knew what everyone had been doing because they'd been watching from the afterlife. Remus didn't think he was the only one who found it amusing when James said he'd been cheering for Harry at every Quidditch match he'd ever played, or how he'd been crowing with delight when Harry had beaten the snot out of Malfoy for bad-mouthing Lily.

"Wait, so you remember everything? You saw it all?" Harry was saying, his eyes shining.

"Of course we did, darling," Lily told him, smoothing a hand over his hair. "And let me tell you, just as soon as I get hold of my wand again, I'll be paying my sister and her wretched husband a rather unpleasant visit."

Harry's eyes filled with tears at the fierce gleam in his mother's eyes and the protective way she laid down her cutlery to hug her son close as though reliving the things Harry had endured in Petunia's house. Remus knew the feeling. He'd been keeping an eye on Harry whenever he could, even if he couldn't claim custody of the boy, nor approach without seeming like some terrible man intent of molesting the child in the eyes of the muggles. More than once he'd gone so far as to break into their house and beat Vernon Dursley to a bloody pulp in his rage over the way the man treated Harry.

He'd modified their memories afterward, of course, but he'd left more than a few of the bruises and things behind, letting them wonder what had happened. His pranking of them had gotten out of hand around Harry's seventh birthday when the boy began emitting the first signs of his magic and he'd had to stop when Harry's cousin had fallen down the stairs after Remus had set off a Dungbomb in the brat's bedroom. Harry had gotten the blame and Remus had been horrified. He'd even burst into the house that night, stealing Harry away with him.

"I shudder to think what you'll do to her, love," James kissed his wife's hand. "Though nothing will ever top all the hell Moony put them through."

"You… what do you mean?" Harry asked, looking down the table toward Remus on confusion.

"You remember all those times that things happened in the house that you couldn't explain?" James asked him. "Not the ones where your magic flared, either. All the other stuff?"

"That was Remus?" Harry asked, his eyes wide. "You… you were there?"

Remus smiled gently at Harry. "Our meeting on the Hogwarts Express wasn't the first, Harry. I broke into Privet Drive more times than is decent. I couldn't actually look after you myself, what with being a werewolf, but don't think for a second that I wasn't keeping an eye on you."

Harry frowned for a minute before suddenly snapping his fingers and pointing at him. "The 'doctor'? That was you? The one who snuck in and healed me when Uncle Vernon got cross?"

Remus nodded. "After giving you Sleeping Draughts and healing you up, I nearly ripped the bastard limb from limb on several occasions."

Harry's eyes were wide.

"It was you… you were the one who took me away when my magic started expressing itself. You… why did you take me back?"

"I didn't," Remus admitted bitterly. "Dumbledore caught up with me and lost his temper with me for taking you, Harry. Believe me, werewolf and jobless or not, I was planning to keep you after what happened when you were seven."

"What happened when he was seven?" Sirius and Severus both asked simultaneously, voices low and dangerous. They shot looks at one another before returning their attention to Remus.

"Aunt Marge set her dogs on me," Harry said quietly, looking down at his plate. "They ripped me up pretty bad before I managed to climb a tree. I was scared and angry and in pain and I… I didn't know how it happened at the time, but I killed three of them without leaving the high branches of the tree. They just yelped and then fell down dead. And eventually I had to come down from the tree and Marge was… well, three of her dogs were inexplicably dead – she breeds them, see? So they were some of her best breeding dogs and they were dead – and so they…uh… they…"

"They let Marge beat him with her belt even though he was already covered in blood and bites from the dogs, and when the fat bitch couldn't lift her arm, Vernon took over," Remus finished for him to gasps of horror from all around the table.

Remus could tell Harry didn't want everyone to know, but it was a little too late, and the things he'd endured were things no one should suffer through.

"I might've… barged in on them and let Moony loose," Remus admitted quietly. "I believe Marge still has the scars and is living under the false belief that one of her mutts turned on her. I savaged her and Vernon before I took Harry away."

"How long did you have him?" Sirius asked.

"Almost a year," Remus admitted, looking over at Harry. "It was rough going, but by then he'd been so mistreated with the Dursleys that he could cook for himself and knew to stay out of trouble. We lived at Dad's cottage and I locked myself in the cellar there every full moon. It was so well-warded that it took Dumbledore that long to catch up with me and insist Harry be returned to the Dursley's because of the blood magic Lily invoked when she died that protected Harry as long as he still called Petunia's house 'home'."

"You let him go?" Sirius asked, horrified.

"I had no choice," Remus admitted tightly. "As you're well aware, Padfoot, arguing with Dumbledore when he has his mind set upon something is a rather pointless venture. When I saw Harry after that, still keeping an eye on him, he didn't seem to remember me and I assumed that Dumbledore must've modified his memory so that he wouldn't try to find me or beg me to take him away again."

"He let Harry go back there even knowing what wretched things they done to him?" Sirius asked. "I'll fucking kill him."

"Sirius, language!" Molly admonished.

"He put a compulsion charm on them after that," Lily shook her head. "They never physically abused him again, but it didn't stop them from locking him in that wretched cupboard, or later his bedroom, and starving him for days at a time. Believe me, by the time I'm through with my sister she will believe she's died and gone to hell."

"You came back, though," Harry said, frowning a little. "I… I remember now… I remember living with you. You taught me things and played with me and… that was the best year of my life before I went to Hogwarts… why didn't I remember until now?"

"Dumbledore put a temporary stasis charm on the memory," Dorea explained softly. "He didn't want you running off looking for your Uncle Moony whenever you were in trouble with the Dursleys."

Harry's eyes flashed before he got up from the table and walked around to Remus. Remus stood quickly when Harry urged him up, blinking when the boy threw his arms around Remus, burrowing into his chest and clutching him tightly. He hugged Harry back just as tightly, smiling gently at the display of affection.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Harry asked. "When you came back all those times? Or on the train? You could've mentioned at any time during the year you were teaching us that you were best friends with Mum and Dad."

Remus sighed. "I didn't want to give you false hope," he admitted. "I knew that if I told you I'd been their friend before they died, you'd ask questions about what they were like and talking about them was still painful. You have to remember that up until you mentioned seeing Pettigrew on the map, I believed Sirius had killed all three of them. All memories of my time spent with your parents involved Sirius too and I was wracked with guilt, wondering how I couldn't have seen that he'd betray us all. Which, obviously I now know I couldn't have seen it from him because he'd never have done so. I also didn't want to scare you by having you find out Sirius was your godfather, still believing him guilty at the time."

"I already knew about that," Harry mumbled. "I overheard a conversation when I was in Hogsmeade under the cloak about him being my godfather. Wanted to kill him, for a bit."

"We've all wanted to kill Sirius at one point or another, Harry," Lily assured him and Harry laughed.

"Well, don't I feel appreciated," Sirius sniffed, feigning offense.

"You should," James said, slinging an arm around the man. "We appreciate you enough that we refrain from murder, even when you're a right bloody drama-queen."

Sirius smirked and flicked a forkful of mashed potatoes at James, splattering his glasses.

"Oi!" James shouted. "Knock it off, you bloody wanker!"

"Now who's the drama-queen, Prongs?" Sirius taunted, ruffling his best friend's hair.

"Still you, git," James retorted, scooping up a slice of gravy-covered beef from his plate and slapping it against Sirius's face.

"Boys, honestly?" Lily sighed. "Food-fighting already?"

"Did you expect anything else, love?" James asked of his wife, smearing Sirius with gravy while he howled in protest.

"You're setting a terrible example for the children," Lily scolded.

"We are not," James protested. "These kids haven't had a decent food fight in their lives. Might do them some good."

Harry began to chuckle as Remus released him to let him return to his seat.

"Oh, honestly," Lily rolled her eyes, though her lips were twitching on a grin. Remus wondered how often she'd endured James's whining in the afterlife to see his best friend once more.

"Are they always like this?" Hermione asked of him when Remus retook his seat.

"Yes," Remus grinned. "And since Prongs is technically still twenty-one in the physical sense, it's not even that surprising. Just wait until the start lobbing pudding at each other, that's when it really gets messy."

Hermione giggled and Remus couldn't help noticing how tired she looked. Despite the faint golden glow around her pupils, she had deep dark circles forming under her eyes and her scleras were bloodshot. She was eating heartily, he noted, already having polished off one helping and in the process of serving herself a second. Remus knew that her body would be working to overcome the magical depletion and that her appetite would increase now that she had a little wolf of her own living inside her skin.

"If they start lobbing pudding, I'm going to bed," Hermione remarked quietly, though she looked amused watched Sirius as he smushed a handful of mashed potatoes into James's hair.

"Probably a wise decision," Remus chuckled before very sneakily flicking his wand in his lap and causing all the peas on his plate to suddenly pelt both James and Sirius.

Both men looked over while Harry began to howl with laughed when a pea shot up Sirius's nose, making him immediately begin to sneeze and snort, trying to dislodge it. James, for his part, looked to be having the time of his life and while Harry was distracted laughing at his godfather, James lobbed the first serving of rice-pudding at the boy.

Everyone at the table froze at Harry's surprised utterance of surprise, his eyes going wide behind his splattered glasses.

"Oh, now James, really?" Lily asked, though she sounded far more amused that displeased.

"Still think it's funny, son?" James smirked, fork at the ready to fling another helping at Harry.

Harry's grin nearly split his entire face before he reached into the bowl of honeyed carrot and hurled a fistful of them at his father. James returned fire with more rice pudding and the dinner was declared a shambles by a now-huffing Molly Weasley, complaining over wasted food and bad manners, because "really, boys, you're grown men," and Remus was heartily laughing, still watching Sirius trying to sneeze out a pea just in time to see it fly free of his best mate's nostril and land in Snape's lap.

The expression of Snape's face was priceless and everyone at the table froze, waiting for Severus to explode into a rage about bad manners, disgusting games and other, less savoury things. Remus held his breath, practically wheezing with laughter but trying very hard not to end up the scape-goat for Severus's impending rage.

Before the man could utter a single scathing syllable, Lily Evans very daintily scooped up a slice of apple pie and suddenly smushed the entire thing against Snape's face before giggling out loud.

Snape's face – covered in pie as it might be – was one of utter shock before it softened momentarily with affection. Remus supposed he ought to have expected it when the bloody git suddenly retaliated, flicking his wand and causing the corn on Remus's plate to begin pelting him mercilessly while Lily's roast beef slapped her cheeks, covering her in gravy and making her splutter in surprise.

"Oh, dear," Hermione was laughing beside him, having picked up a bread plate that she was holding like a shield.

James and Harry were ganging up on Sirius, covering the man in gravy and mash, rubbing it into his hair like conditioner while Sirius howled and struggled, swearing revenge as he beat them both back with sausages. Lily was trying to mop the gravy off her face with one hand whilst throwing a slice of cake at Remus with the other and suddenly the twins were in on it, flinging food at their siblings, their parents, Snape, and even Dorea and Charlus. Charlus begun lobbing dinner rolls at everyone present and Molly Weasley stormed out of the kitchen, declaring them all childish fools and that she most certainly would not be the one cleaning up this mess.

It wasn't until Hermione got in on the fight and threw a slice of pie at Tonks that everything got out of hand. Remus paused in his hurling of rice at the three Potter men, siding with Sirius - who rewarded him by lobbing a piece of sticky-date at him – to watch the way Tonks's expression soured and her hair changed to red from a vibrant and amused shadow of yellow. She picked up a hefty lamb-shank with the bone still in it and threw it at Hermione as hard as she could in return.

Remus caught it before it could hit the young witch – despite the plate she clutched as a shield. His low growl almost went unheard over the laughter and the shouting, but the look on Tonks's face said it all. Hermione, for her part, merely leaned over him slightly, reaching for a bread roll that she enthusiastically lobbed at Neville. She acted like the other witch hadn't tried to do her harm rather than playing in good fun, but Remus knew Tonks had meant to hurt the girl and it made him angry.

Curling his lip, he transferred his attention from James and Sirius as his main targets, to levitating a full bowl of rice pudding – bowl and all – to smush into Nymphadora's face. She shrieked in surprise and outrage as she was covered in it, the bowl likely hitting her nose none-too-gently.

"Thank you," Hermione giggled, ducking behind him and using him as a shield when Neville flung a spoonful of caramel sauce at her.

"Thank me later," Remus laughed, very deliberately covering the little witch with icing when he smeared a piece of cake over her cheek and into her hair.

She squealed in surprise, returning fire with handfuls of peas and mash, trying to cover his face with it. Remus cleverly turned his head and managed to swallow a good portion of it rather than wearing it, which made Hermione blink in surprise. He grinned wolfishly before being splattered with rice pudding, courtesy of Snape.

He was far from the only one covered in food and laughing his arse off before the entire dinner was ruined and everyone was in higher spirits than they could recall being in many long years.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I'm so overwhelmed by the amount of love you've all been giving this fic. We cleared 600 reviews with the last chapter. I'm so thrilled and so touched and so grateful. Thank you all so much. I can't wait to see what you make of this 8k word monster chapter.**

 **xx-Kitten.**

* * *

 **Tethered**

 _By Kittenshift17_

* * *

 **Chapter Five**

* * *

Hermione slept hard that night. She washed all the food from herself in the shower – untangling rice and potatoes and peas and cake from her hair for what felt like hours but unable to keep from smiling before she'd been greeted on the way out of the shower by Dorea Potter. She'd been given a nice, warm cup of hot chocolate and escorted up to her bedroom by the woman, who very quietly thanked her for what she'd done before tucking her in like the woman was her very own grandmother.

She slept hard and she knew it because by the time she woke up again, there were people leaning over her bed and looking worried. Harry was perched on the edge of it, peering at her with concern and adoration. Sitting on Ginny's empty bed were James, Sirius, Lily and Ron, all of them looking like they thought she was going to die in her sleep. Dorea was sitting on the end of the bed, patting her shin reassuringly and Charlus leaned in the doorway with a small frown on his face.

"Am I dying?" Hermione asked sleepily, peering at them all before feeling someone squeeze her hand, she looked toward the appendage and found Remus at the other end of it.

He as sitting on the floor between her bed and Ginny's, leaning against the nightstand and looking like he hadn't slept a wink in days. Indeed, he looked like hell, no matter the fact that he looked younger and more alive than she recalled him looked before she'd gone to bed.

"Don't even joke about it, Hermione," Ron said, frowning like the idea upset him.

Hermione raised her eyebrows, glancing back at Remus and realising that he looked so worn out – with dark circles under his eyes and a crease between his eyebrows, because he was feeding her even more of his magic by hold her hand while her body attempted to heal itself and to replenish the magic she'd expended.

"How long was I out?" she asked quietly, tugging on her hand to pull it out of Remus's grip before she could deplete his magic, too.

"Four days," Harry told her, reaching a careful hand to smooth through her curls.

"Oh dear," Hermione frowned.

"Yeah, we were pretty worried," he nodded. "Madam Pomfrey has been by several times to check on you and she gave you a bunch of potions while you were unconscious."

"Have any of you slept? You look…." She frowned at the others before looking at Remus again. He looked the worst – he looked like he'd endured the most harrowing full moon of his life even though Hermione knew the full moon wasn't for another several days, yet. The others looked pretty tired and stressed, too.

"We've been taking shifts sleeping. Ginny moved to a room down the hall so she wouldn't disturb you or be disturbed herself by the number of people coming and going to stay with you."

"Oh, you didn't have to do that," Hermione said exasperatedly, trying to sit up and finding her body weaker and heavier than she recalled it being ever before.

"We did, love," Sirius assured her. "Seems you took a few hexes in the fight before you started casting to bring these guys back."

"I… I don't remember being hexed, aside from a Slicing hex that caught me across the thigh," she frowned.

"I think they hit you while you were casting, Hermione," Ron told her. "The effect of them, alongside the magical depletion of bringing everybody back overwrought your system. Madam Pomfrey actually had to bring in another healer – an old friend of Dumbledore's whose retired from St Mungo's, to stabilise you."

Hermione frowned sliding up the bed slowly, pushing through the aches in her body that she didn't know she'd have. She fought not to wince, not wanting to worry them further.

"Ginny's just run to call for Pomfrey," Harry told her, smoothing a hand through her curls very tenderly. "How are you feeling? Do you hurt anywhere?"

Hermione didn't want to sound dramatic and say she hurt everywhere, but it was the truth.

"Um… I actually… well, four days is a long time and I could use the loo, to be honest," Hermione admitted, blushing.

James chuckled from the bed opposite hers, looking at her fondly like he thought of her as his daughter as much as Harry was his son.

"Do you need help getting up, Hermione?" Harry asked seriously, jumping to his feet so she could throw back the covers.

"You want to help me pee?" Hermione asked, trying for humour despite the way she could hear the exhaustion in her own voice. "I love you, Harry, but there are some things I have to do by myself, you know?"

Harry grinned at her.

"At least your sense of humour survived," he said.

"What sense of humour?" Ron teased, also on his feet now, both of them looking like them planned to carry her down to the loo if need be. Hermione wasn't so sure she wouldn't need them to do just that, if she was being honest.

"Humour is beyond your teaspoon-sized emotional range, Ron," Hermione teased weakly. "I'm unsurprised you missed mine."

"Funny witch," he accused affectionately, rolling his eyes.

Hermione winced when she laughed along with them both, trying to swing her legs out of the bed and feeling lightheaded as she did so.

Harry offered her a hand to pull her up and she took it gratefully. As she stood, everything swayed and her vision went dotty and Hermione realised she was in more trouble than she'd believed. No wonder Remus looked like hell. He'd been feeding her enough of his magic to keep her from death's door, it seemed.

"Oh dear," Hermione whispered, losing her balance and falling heavily against Harry's chest.

"Yeah, I thought so," Harry said. "Come on, let's get you up, Hermione. Mum, maybe you better come with us and help her in the loo. We don't want her to fall and crack her head on something and I get the feeling she'll object to me helping her get her knickers down."

"Should've known you only kept me around to one day attempt seduction, Potter," Hermione said, still trying to make light of the situation and not at all liking how very vulnerable she felt.

"The secret's out," Harry laughed even as he stooped slightly before scooping her into his arms and cradling her like she was a tiny, fragile doll.

"You got her, son?" James asked, he, Lily and Sirius all getting to their feet, all of them hovering, trying to help her, trying to make sure she'd be alright.

"I've got her, Dad. Blimey, Hermione, when Madam Pomfrey gets here you're going to need Nourishment Draughts. You're light as a feather."

"And yet you always refuse to piggyback me about the castle when I ask," Hermione said, smiling weakly when Ron realised she was having trouble holding her head up on her own. He smoothed his hand through her curls, lifting her head and tucking it against Harry's shoulder carefully.

"I'll be sure to always do so from now on, shall I?" Harry asked, laughing softly. She could hear how strained it sounded and she knew he was trying to make light of the situation whilst actually being terrified out of his mind that he was going to lose her.

"About time," she muttered. "Though I think I'd prefer to just have you carry my bag with all my books, now that I think about it."

"Oh, no," Harry said. "That thing weighs a tonne. I'll carry you all day, no worries, but I swear that bloody thing weighs three times what you do."

Hermione laughed and she winced when it ended of a coughing fit that had the whole household hovering over her worriedly.

"You're not actually all going to follow me to the loo, right?" she asked, peering over the top of Harry's shoulder as they all followed him down the hall and into the loo.

"We'll be right out here, love," Dorea smiled at her faintly. "Lily dear, perhaps a hand?"

"Oh no, honestly," Hermione tried to hold a hand up to insist she'd be fine on her own. "I can do it. I promise, I can. Don't trouble yourself, please."

"You can't, Hermione, and I promise it's no trouble," Lily assured her when Harry stood her on her feet in front of the loo. Or tried to. Her knees buckled as soon as she tried to put weight on them and he caught her quickly, lowering her so that she was sitting on the loo despite having her pants still on. "Harry, give us a minute, love."

Everyone else waited outside, all of them still looking worried while Harry pulled the door closed. Lily Evans frowned at her worriedly too when Hermione began to wriggle on the loo, trying to tug her pyjama pants down so that she could go about her business in peace.

"Let me help you, Hermione," Lily said kindly. "I know you're probably mortified by all this, but trust me, dear. You're hardly the first girl I've had to help out of her knickers for the sake of the loo. I was in training to be a Healer before we had to go into hiding when Harry was born. It's really no trouble and nothing I haven't seen before, I promise."

Hermione blushed.

"I… I feel very silly," Hermione admitted, giving up trying to get her pants off by herself when she almost fell off the loo and Lily had to catch her. "I didn't realise this would… well, I suppose that's what I get for playing with magic I don't fully comprehend, isn't it?"

Lily smiled faintly. "Why do I have the feeling that you're thinking those words in the type of derogatory tone Severus might've used to issue them?" she asked.

Hermione laughed. "Because I was. So much for being an insufferable know-it-all, eh?"

Lily grinned at her. "Yes, well, he always was a dirk-tongued git, even as a boy," she said. "Don't mind him. I assure you that as far as he is concerned, you are a little goddess in the form of a curly-haired mess. He's been very worried about you, you know? We all have. He was here too, earlier, but he was called away to meet with Voldemort again."

"He went back?" Hermione asked, her eyes going wide as they jerked to meet Lily's.

"Oh, yes," Lily nodded, looking resigned. "He is still very much playing the role of spy. Our return has been spread through the Death Eater ranks and he's been questioned at length about it all. I'm told he reported having seen us on the night of our return when he came here, but since then he's been told to say he's been kept away from us, what with the old rivalry between he and James, and all that."

Hermione nodded. "They didn't… I was worried he'd be tortured or killed as a result of your return."

"We all were, I think," Lily admitted. "Even Sirius. And _that_ is saying something. In any case, he's been instructed to play it all off as a reason to be more involved with the brethren, claiming an opening of old wounds at the reminder that I still married James, in the end. He… well, I'm not sure how much you know, but his having returned and stayed 'loyal' in Voldemort's eyes even in the face of my murder, combined with Voldemort's own inability to understand friendship, love or affection as a motivating force has meant he largely overlooked my return as significant to Severus."

Hermione nodded thoughtfully.

"Um… Li… Mrs Potter?"

"Oh, no, call me Lily, darling," the red-head smiled. "I know we all look so much younger and so close to your age thanks to the circumstances, but I'm far too young for formal titles and you're a part of the family. You can call me Lily, or you can call me Mum, I don't mind."

Hermine smiled weakly at the other witch. "Right… Um… Actually I wanted to ask about my parents. Did anyone… you know, go to them? Explain what happened? They're in danger because of what I did. My being friends with Harry already put them in harm's way and I've been debating what to do about them all year, but… well, I don't want to see them captured by Death Eaters."

"Albus and Minerva went round with James and Sirius to pay them a visit the day after our return. They've been sent into hiding, darling. I… well, as you were unable to offer a suggestion, we… Dumbledore insisted that they… er…" Lily looked uncomfortable and worried for a moment and Hermione frowned. "He's removed their memories of magic, darling. He removed their memory of ever having you, for their own protection, and he sent them off to live in Australia."

Hermione's heart fractured inside her chest and a low sound of pain escaped her loudly enough that there was concerned knocking on the door.

"I'm so sorry, Hermione," Lily said, helping her up when she was finished her business, too shell-shocked to think about pulling her pants up.

"They… he….but…" she spluttered, trying to make sense of it all. It wasn't that she hadn't already considered the notion of such a thing herself. When Voldemort had returned the previous summer, Hermione had wanted to send her parents into hiding and she'd known they would never go on their own without insisting she come too.

"Mum?" Harry called. "Is everything all right?"

Hermione stared at Lily, tears filling and overflowing her eyes as the witch helped her to the sink to wash her hands. She lowered herself to sit on the edge of the bathtub next to the sink.

"It's fine, Harry," Lily replied. "We'll be out in a minute, love. James, darling?"

"What is it, Lils?" James called back, sounding just as worried as Harry.

"When Poppy arrives, can you have her prepare a Calming Draught? Sirius, love, have you got any chocolate on you?"

"Oh, shit," Hermione heard Sirius mutter.

"Mum? Can we come in?" Harry asked, sounding even more worried at the requests she'd made.

"Yes, she's decent, love. Bring chocolate if you're coming in," Lily said, wringing a face-cloth under the warm water from the sink and helping Hermione to wash her face.

"He took their memories," Hermione murmured while Lily wiped at her face carefully. "He… this is my punishment. I know it. He took their memories and sent them off without even letting me say goodbye because I had the audacity to interfere with his little plans for conquering Voldemort."

Lily didn't argue with her. In fact, she looked rather like she agreed.

"Minerva, Sirius, and James all argued with him that it was too soon to do it and that you should be allowed to contribute to the decision, but he went ahead and did it anyway," she said softly as Harry opened the door, hurrying into the bathroom with Ron on his heels.

Hermione felt a sob catch in her throat when Harry dropped to his knees in front of her, taking her hands.

"What is it, Hermione? What's wrong? Are you in pain?" he asked urgently, looking worried while Lily wrung out the cloth again, sponging it over Hermione's neck and shoulders – bare but for the spaghetti straps of her singlet-top.

"I've just told her about her Mum and Dad, darling," Lily said quietly.

"Oh, no," Harry said.

He was pulling Hermione into his arms before the first sob tore from her chest in a soft wail, burying her tear-stained face against his neck. Ron threw his arms around them too, sitting on the edge of the bathtub beside her and offering what comfort he could.

"We all lost it at Dumbledore for that, Hermione," Ron told her. "You should've seen Mum. I reckon Dumbledore was right scared by the time she stopped shrieking at him. McGonagall let him have it, too. We weren't even supposed to be allowed into the Order meeting, but we heard all the shouting and then Harry and I burst in there and let him have it, too."

Hermione was too grief-stricken to reply. She'd wanted her parents safe because she'd feared losing them, but it seemed the price of their safety had been that she lost them. She would never forgive Dumbledore for this, and just as soon as she could spare the magic and the strength she planned to hex the headmaster for what he'd done.

"He did this to punish me," she whispered tightly, shaking her head when Sirius appeared, trying to feed her chocolate that she was certain she would just vomit back up or choke on.

"That's what I reckon, too," Harry nodded. "He's right stroppy about you bringing everyone back because it didn't fit with whatever plan he had for the war. Honestly, everyone's a bit put out with him, you know? The entire Order. Everyone else thinks this is a miracle and a blessing, but he just seems to regard having to fit Mum and Dad, and Gran and Grandad into his plans as some sort of chore. You should've heard Gran let him have it. If he wasn't cowed by Mrs Weasley, he was definitely cowed by Gran. She hexed him silly and she accused him of being a petty, vindictive dictator who'd spent too long having everyone just listen to him regarding this war and the greater good. She told him that it would stop with her and that if he ever did anything to hurt you or any of our family ever again, she'd make him regret the day he'd been born. Honestly, I think we were all terrified by then. Gran gets very scary when she's mad, Hermione."

Hermione listened to Harry, doing as he did best in the face of her tears and rambling about anything and everything to distract her until she felt better.

"And Snape!" Harry went on. "You won't believe these words are coming out of my mouth, Hermione, but I've _never_ seen Snape so livid – and I say this having spent several years doing my best to infuriate the git. You know how he gets when he's really mad? The way the yelling and the banging of door and things stops and he gets waspish and hisses? He ripped Dumbledore a new one claiming he'd had no idea that he and Voldemort were both in the business of orphaning children and that, had he known, he'd surely have not bothered switching sides because at least Voldemort had the bollocks to be up front about what a ruthless bastard he is. He said some other stuff about the Greater Good and how he'd thought Dumbledore had learned his lesson about assuming he was a god amongst men – something about Grindlewald too, but that went over my head. Anyway, it got pretty dark and by the end Dumbledore actually pulled his wand on Snape.

"You won't believe it, Hermione, but _everyone_ pulled their wands to protect Snape – even Dad and Sirius - and Dumbledore seemed to finally realise what a mistake he'd made. He left without another word and we haven't seen him since. I think Snape might've had a minor aneurysm to have so many people on his side, too, because we didn't see much of him after that argument until yesterday when he came by. He had a whole bunch of potions and things to help you get better and he hovered around for a bit, making everyone nervous because I swear the sod actually emits shard of ice and cold drafts everywhere he goes when he's that angry. But he was definitely worried about you. We all were, of course, and we're all furious with Dumbledore. And I know it's probably too soon to say so without upsetting you, rather than having it comfort you, but you're part of my family now and you're moving in with us, when you're strong enough, and you'll always be my sister and if anyone ever hurts you this way again, I might actually commit murder."

Harry was positively babbling by the time Ron stepped in.

"Harry, mate, maybe take a breath?" he suggested. "You're panting. And you're overwhelming her."

Hermione, despite the grief wracking her and the pain in her chest, smiled just a little bit.

"I love you both," she whispered hoarsely, pulling back from Harry's tight hug and squeezing Ron's hand when he kept one arm around her shoulders.

Lily had retreated to the doorway with everyone else, but it was obvious that they were very much still there, listening and offering silent support.

"We love you, too," Ron told her, his ears turning red at the admission. "We've been right worried about you, 'Mione. Barely slept with worry. Actually, we did sleep for a bit. Both of us. In Ginny's little single bed across from you."

"There was spooning," Harry grinned, looking wickedly amused. "I'm a fabulous little spoon, you know?"

"You're a bloody git," Ron corrected him.

"Ron's embarrassed because he woke up cuddling me and secretly liked it," Harry assured her.

"Yeah, liked it about as much as I'd like to snog a Blast Ended Skrewt, mate," Ron retorted. "Next time you want to snuggle someone, crawl in with 'Mione or your parents, yeah?"

"He loves me," Harry told her, grinning and shooting a wink at Ron, who socked him in the arm.

"Of course he does," Hermione said, smiling despite the pain in her heart. "How could he not?"

"He wriggles," Ron informed her. "It was like sleeping next to a worm, I'm telling you. Never known anyone or anything to wriggle in their sleep as much as Harry does."

"It's not my fault you were hogging the bed and I had to keep shuffling over to keep from falling off and landing on Remus," Harry told him. "You hog the covers too, and I got cold."

"Remus has been giving us grief about how adorable we are," Ron said, chuckling.

"I'm sure he just wanted to spoon, too."

"Careful, Harry," Remus's voice came from outside the door. "I'm not above surprising you in the night."

"Don't make it creepy, mate," Harry called over his shoulder, laughing. "Dad, are you going to let him talk to me like that?"

"Let him?" James scoffed. "Mate, I'd be climbing in on the other side. Moony's a great spooner."

Everyone laughed when Sirius declared Remus to be the best big spoon of all time before telling tale of how every now and then Remus also made the most adorable little-spoon known to wizardkind, which got him noogied, by the sound of things.

"Alright, you lot," Lily said. "Clear out so I can help Hermione wash up a bit, yeah? We'll get Poppy up here to patch up our girl a bit more and help her feel a bit better with some warmth. Hermione, darling, maybe a bath?"

Hermione peered into the tub behind her for a moment.

"I don't much fancy the idea of having to be lifted in and out of it naked, actually," she admitted. "And my knees will just buckle again in the shower."

"We'd be happy to give you a sponge bath, Hermione," Fred called from outside the bathroom.

"More than happy, in fact," George added.

"Bloody tossers," Ron said.

"Um, thanks, boys," Hermione said, blushing. "But I don't think that would be conducive to actually seeing me clean."

"She's makes a good point, Fred," George said.

"She's a very smart witch, George," his twin agreed.

"Pack it in, you pair of tosspots," Ron called to his brothers.

"Ickle Ronniekins seems concerned about our intentions toward the lady, Gred," Fred said.

"He's just sore because he secretly fancies Harry, Forge," George replied.

"Bloody wankers," Ron muttered, getting to his feet alongside Harry and leaving the bathroom so that Hermione could rinse off.

They closed the door behind them, leaving Lily inside with her once more.

"I'm sorry for upsetting you, darling," Lily apologised. "I knew you'd want to know, but it might've been a bit more prudent to wait until you were feeling stronger. Come on, now. Let's get you into the tub so you can warm up and rinse off. You'll feel better once you're clean. Four days of sleep can leave you feeling terribly icky, in my experience."

"How will I get back out?" Hermione asked.

"I'll levitate you, silly," Lily said. "Magic, remember? No need for hard labour – even though at this point I could probably lift you in and out by myself if need be. Come on, love, let's get you out of those clothes."

Hermione sighed, cooperating because she suspected the woman might be right about feeling better after she'd rinsed off a bit.

"I'll have Ginny bring you some fresh clothes to put on, too. You're probably going to be on bedrest for a while, I'm afraid. You've depleted your magic completely, which would've killed you if not for your tether to Remus. He's pretty run down too, because the man won't stop trying to funnel more and more of his strength into you in the hopes of healing you faster. He hasn't left your bedside other than to use the loo since we couldn't wake you the day after you brought us back."

Hermione frowned.

"But he needs to take care of himself, too," Hermione protested. "I'll be fine. Like Mrs Potter said, as long as we're tethered, neither of us can die while the other lives. But if he puts too much of his magic and his strength into me, he'll get run down enough that we both risk dying. He needs to stay strong, even if it means a longer recovery time for me."

"I've told him that," Lily nodded. "After today he'll keep more of his strength to himself. He's going to need it for the full moon in a few days. But we needed to wake you, even briefly, to ensure that you weren't suffering too much while you were out. You haven't been dreaming anything terrible, have you?"

Hermione frowned, sighing softly as Lily levitated her into the tub just as soon as it was full of nice warm water.

"I don't think I've dreamed at all," Hermione admitted. "It all just seems black – like when you've been anaesthetized."

"Ah," Lily nodded. "You were unconscious or even in a coma, then. I feared that might be the case. It's probably best, healing wise, but we wanted to make sure you weren't trapped in the dream sphere. How are you feeling, truthfully, Hermione?"

Hermine thought about it, laying back in the bath and trying not to cringe too hard over having her best friend's mum seeing her naked.

"Weak," she admitted. "Drained and tired. And literally every part of me is aching. I feel like I might vomit, and I'm upset about my parents, and there's something itchy on my back."

"Let me see it," Lily frowned. "We've been scanning you every few hours to make sure your vitals are all normal, and it hasn't detected anything unusual for someone with depleted magic."

Hermione winced as she slowly managed to roll, painfully, toward the far side of the tub to show Lily her back.

"In the middle," she said, "and down near my tailbone, too. It hurts."

Lily didn't say anything, but Hermione jumped a bit when the witch slowly ran her hand over the middle of her back.

"Does it hurt here, or just itch?" she asked.

"It's itchy there. My tailbone aches, too."

Lily scratched lightly at the skin and Hermione hissed between her teeth.

"Oh dear," Lily whispered. "Listen, Hermione, I'm just going to go and see if Poppy has arrived yet, alright? Can you hold that position, facing the wall until I get back?"

Hermione nodded.

"Is it something bad?" she asked fearfully.

"Not bad," Lily said. "Just something that needs to be addressed. I'm going to leave the door open just a bit. If you start to have trouble holding your head up or think you might slip too far under the water, bang on the wall or call for help. Everyone is still outside, worrying about you."

Lily got up and quickly hurried out of the room. Hermione laid there, worried and waiting, soaking up the warmth of the bathwater and feeling a little better for it. It soothed some of the aches in her muscles.

"Is everything alright, Lils?" Hermione heard Sirius ask in the hallway.

"Erm… yes and no. I need to speak to Poppy. Um, Remus, love, I think you better be involved in the discussion, too."

"Her tailbone?" Hermione heard Remus guess, his voice low and rough with tension and exhaustion.

"Yes, she says it aches. And… well, there's something else in the middle of her back that she's claiming is itchy, but I've never seen anything like it."

"What is it?" everyone asked nosily and Hermione cringed at the idea that they would all know her business.

"I… I don't rightly know, to be honest. The vertebrae shifted under my fingers when I touched it, and when I scratched it she whined like… well…"

"Like a dog or a wolf might do when you find the spot that makes their leg shake or the sweet spot that sends them limp," Remus finished for her. "Is there a mark there?"

"A little one – almost like a bruise, actually, as though something has formed under the skin and damaged the cells around it. Is this because of the tether?"

"This is because she's got a wolf but isn't a werewolf," Remus sighed. "There's a reason people are warned away from contracting the lycanthropy virus, willing or unwilling. The body goes through intense physical changes. She won't have to suffer the painful transformation every full moon like I do, but she'll have all of the other symptoms as a result of ingesting my blood and gaining a little wolf of her own."

Hermione hated the amount of anguish and pain she could hear in his voice, realising right then that not only was he worried about her as a friend, but also that he felt responsible for all she was suffering. She realised he was blaming himself for the state she was in and Hermione felt something inside of her stir in response. Something sat up and growled. Without realising what she was doing, Hermione rolled back over, reached for the soap and hurriedly scrubbed her body clean, in spite of the amount of pain each movement elicited.

As soon as she was clean, the little spark inside her had her crawling out of the tub, clawing at the edge and heaving herself out. Her knees buckled when she tried to stand, and she sat down hard on the edge of the tub, but she reached for the clean bath-towel someone had hung on the towel rack awaiting her use, and towelled off as best she could. Hermione hissed at the itch between her shoulder blades when she bumped whatever thing it was that Lily had mentioned, and she used the bathroom counter to pull herself up, ignoring the dizzy spell as she twisted enough, trying to see culprit of the itch.

There, in the middle of her back was a little purple bruise and the vertebrae underneath it shifted strangely as she moved, almost as though it might allow her a range of movement and flexibility she hadn't had before. Narrowing her eyes, Hermione twisted slightly, watching it rotate until she couldn't see in the mirror anymore, but she could press her own nose to the side of her hip right at the top of her leg where her knickers usually sat. Straightening quickly, Hermione realised that having a wolf meant that she was definitely more flexible.

She twisted again, this time reaching for her aching tailbone and she winced when she touched it. She suspected she knew the reason her tailbone was aching. Were she to have been properly infected with lycanthropy to the point where she'd transform, she would do so and grow tail each month. In human form, she didn't have one, but her body was preparing itself for the idea of growing one each month though she logically and technically never would. Frowning, she began to think it might be a good idea, when her strength returned, to begin thinking about learning Animagi. She wouldn't have to go through the harrowing and painful meditation processes to unlock her inner magic and discover her inner spirit animal.

She knew from her Patronus Charm that it had been an otter, but she had the feeling that from now on it would be a wolf, as everyone who was a werewolf, or who had a wolf inside of them did. She knew that if she mastered Animagi, she would take the form of a wolf too, to match the inner animal that she'd formed. Resolving herself to the idea when she regained her strength, Hermione turned slowly once more, peering at her own reflection curiously.

She looked extremely unwell, she noted. Her cheeks were gaunt, making her eyes look too big for her face. Her eyes too, had changed. The rather dull seeming brown she'd sported before was now flecked through with amber and striations of gold. Directly around her pupil she also noticed a bright gold ring – evidence of the wolf now sharing her body. She could see a little better too, she realised, noticing suddenly that the only light within the room was a single candle on the bench, yet she could see perfectly as though she were standing in broad daylight.

"Hermione? You alright?" Harry called from beyond the door.

"I'm fine, Harry," Hermione replied, ignoring the way her knees shooks violently, wanting to give out on her again.

Without clean clothing to put on – Ginny having yet to arrive with them, she supposed she would have to settle for the house-coat she spied hanging from a hook on the back of the door. It was a soft green one, and when she reached for it, leaning almost all of her slight weight against the sink for balance, a scent hit her nose that made her whimper very softly.

"Hermione?" Harry asked again, apparently close enough to hear the soft sound.

"I'm fine, Harry," she said again. "Just… it's nothing, alright. Don't come in. I'm naked."

Harry laughed.

"You know, there are certain things a bloke hopes to hear in his life," he began, chuckling. "And a warning to stay away followed immediately by an admission to nudity from a pretty witch isn't really one I'd hoped for."

"You and the rest of the men in the bloody world, Harry," Sirius said.

"I think you and I would both be mentally scarred for life if you had to endure the sight of my naked, Harry," Hermione told him. "Let's not forget that I've been unconscious for four days. I might not have been able to make conversation, but I assure you that all other bodily functions were still taking place. My leg hair alone would likely scare you to death."

Laughter sounded from the corridor.

"Hermione, dear, may I come in? It's Dorea, in case you're wondering."

Hermione was too busy struggling into the borrowed robe – which she could tell from scent alone, belonged to Remus.

"Actually, I was wondering if anyone would mind if I… came out," Hermione admitted, gripping her waning strength and resolve with both hands as she pushed away from the bench and walked on very shaky legs over to the door.

"You're not supposed to be up, treasure," Sirius told her, frowning and reaching toward her with one hand.

Hermione gripped the doorframe tightly to maintain her balance.

"Oh, please," she rolled her eyes, ignoring the spots dancing in her vision. "One little ritual won't beat me, I promise."

"Is that my robe?" Remus asked in a low voice from somewhere near the back of the group all loitering in the hallway.

"Yes," Hermione admitted. "I hope you don't mind, but the other option was the smelly pyjamas I've been sleeping and sweating in for the past four days."

Remus shook his head, looking like he didn't mind in the slightest. He also looked like hell.

"Hermione, we really need to get you back to bed," Harry told her. "You're going to pass out if you expend too much energy."

"Shan't," Hermione replied stubbornly. "Now, you lot just clear a path and I'll make my way back on my own, thank you very much."

"Bravado won't help you, love," Charlus said from the back of the group, though he smiled fondly. "Don't overdo it, little one. Not with this. You need rest and you need your strength. Don't waste it on silly things like pride."

"It's not about pride," Hermione assured them all. "I have no qualms being carried. It's simply unnecessary. I'm not dying, you know? Just exhausted."

"Please just let me carry you?" Harry asked, shaking his head and smiling exasperatedly. "Let me take care of you, stubborn witch. You're in this state because of something you did for me and I will do anything and everything I can to take care of you the rest of your life, so you just let me do my job, alright? I demand it, as your new brother."

"Don't say that," Hermione wrinkled her nose at him. "It's been days for you, but in my conscious mind I was just kissing you for the sake of the ritual, so you just keep talk of brotherhood to yourself for a while, alright?"

Harry laughed.

"I'm still going to carry you," he warned before invading her space and scooping her up with ease, despite her protests.

"This is very silly," she sighed, though the minute he scooped her up, her vision spotted even more, and Hermione suspected she'd have fainted again had she tried to climb the stairs by herself.

"Don't argue," Harry told her, dropping an affectionate kiss to the top of her head.

"If you actually think I'm going to let your boss me around, Harry Potter, you better just rethink your priorities," Hermione sniffed. "And you're not all actually going to follow me from room to room, are you? I mean no offence, but you all look like you could use some decent sleep… and I think some of you need the shower."

"First thing she does when she wakes up is tells us we all stink, lads," James chuckled. "Real nice, Hermione."

"I pride myself on my ability to smother those around me with kindness," Hermione replied, grinning at the man, finding it only too easy to joke with him when he looked so very much like Harry.

"Hermione? Goodness, girl! I leave you alone for two minutes!" Lily protested, hurrying up the stairs with Madam Pomfrey on her heels. "How the devil did you get out of the tub? Dorea?"

"All by myself," Hermione said proudly. "I planned to walk myself back to bed too, but Harry's being overbearing."

"Walk yourself!?" Madam Pomfrey exclaimed. "Miss Granger, you are very lucky you are already infirmed, or I might smack you myself for the cheek. I've been bargaining with the Powers That Be to keep you breathing and you're immediate reaction on waking is to over-exert yourself?"

Hermione sighed, not at all in the mood for a lecture.

"I'll be fine, Madam Pomfrey. I'm not going to die, I promise. Unless it's of starvation, that is. I'm hungry. Is there food? I feel like I should've been offered food by now."

James began to laugh again while Ron accepted a sickle from Sirius over some sort of bet.

"What?" Hermione asked, looking at her friend.

"We might've had a few bets in poor taste on what you'd do when you woke up. If you could see your way clear to lecturing Remus for letting himself get into this state and refusing to shower in four days, I stand to make a very handsome profit, you know? Help me out?"

"And if I don't?" Hermione challenged.

"I might be obligated to clean out the attic by myself, without magic," Ron admitted.

"Foolish boy," Hermione muttered. "If you go into the attic without using magic you'll be gobbled up by enormous Puffeskins or attacked by that clanky old suit of armour with a life of its own. A death sentence, that's what you're in for."

"I willingly took that risk, knowing your habit of lecturing anyone and everyone on the proper state of hygiene that ought to be maintained by every individual. I staked my life on your willingness to boss the stubborn sod about, love, so if you would get to it shortly, I'd appreciate it."

"Who did you bet against?" Hermione asked, wondering who actually doubted that she'd lecture Remus.

"The twins, Mr Potter and Sirius. Fred and George reckoned you'd be too weak to even stay awake long enough to say hello, Mr Potter reckons you're too sweet to cuss Remus out for being a bloody idiot, and Sirius reckons that you'll let me march to my death just to teach _me_ a lesson about making assumptions or gambling," Ron explained.

"I should, too," she sniffed. "Honestly, betting over my sick-bed, Ronald?"

"Well the alternative was to morbidly begin choosing what song you might like played at your funeral, so…" Ron shrugged and everyone winced.

"Delightful. If I had the energy, Ronald Weasley, I'd swat you for being such a git," Hermione informed him.

Ron grinned at her.

"Good thing you're weaker than a field mouse right now, then, isn't it?"

"Sirius, do me a favour and kick him, would you?" Hermione asked politely.

"Anything for you, treasure," Sirius grinned before kicking Ron on the bum as Harry lowered her back down onto her bed.

"Oi!" Ron protested.

"Serves you right. Now, I wasn't kidding about being hungry. Please tell me that at least one of you has some food for me."

"Hermione, you've been unconscious for several days," Pomfrey told her. "You can't have anything to eat, I need you to drink these potions and then I need to examine you."

"Can I at least have a cup of tea?" Hermione asked, feeling grumpy at being denied food. She caught the way Remus slipped out of the room and disappeared when she felt a sudden tingle along her psyche, uncomfortable being outside of his immediate presence.

"Shortly, if your exam goes well."

Hermione sighed.

"Alright you lot, clear off," Madam Pomfrey demanded. "I need to examine Hermione and most of you need good meal, a sleep, or a shower. Really, Sirius, you look terrible. When was the last time you washed your hair?"

"Low blow, Poppy," Sirius accused, scandalised and clutching at his somewhat stringy hair that did look like it needed a good wash. "I was ensuring my favourite witch of all time didn't kick the bucket by coaxing her from the edge of the abyss with my devilish good looks and unwaverable charm, I'll have you know."

"Well, I'm certain that a shower would help, dear," Pomfrey retorted.

"You do smell ripe, Pads," James informed his friend.

"As though you don't?" Sirius asked. "Honestly mate, you smell like you've been dead for fourteen years."

Hermione winced at the poor joke.

"Too soon?" he asked when only James actually laughed.

"Too soon, Padfoot," Lily sighed. "Go and wash, you great git, or I'll tell Severus you're modelling your appearance on his Hogwarts-days look."

"You wouldn't dare!" Sirius gasped, looking horrified.

"Wouldn't I?" Lily grinned.

Sirius huffed, clutching his heart as though wounded before dramatically stomping out of the room. Hermione giggled just bit when James shook his head fondly and Lily threw him a high-five.

"Well, I thought he still looked pretty good," Hermione commented.

From down the stairs she heard Sirius shout in reply, "Loving you more every day, Hermione! Definitely my favourite witch."

"Come on you lot, out," Pomfrey ordered. "That means you too, Harry. Off with you. We need to do a full examination now that she's awake."

'Why do I get the feeling that you're going to make me strip again?" Hermione asked, frowning.

"Because I am," Pomfrey said. "Everyone out. Lily, be a dear and help her out of that robe, will you? And lock the door before Remus tries to burst back in here."

"What's going on with him?" Hermione asked as soon as the door was closed – Lily going so far as to ward it. "He really hasn't left my bedside?"

Madam Pomfrey nodded.

"Foolish man," she scolded though he was there to hear it. "Mostly it's the effect of your tether, I believe. With you so weakened it draws on him whether he's beside you or not and he wanted to make sure you were safe and comfortable."

"He's blaming himself, thinking I'm in this state as a result of my new wolf," Hermione finished when she looked hesitant. "I heard him when I was in the bath. He thinks this is his fault even though _I_ bit him and accepted this risk, and even though my problem is born of magical depletion, not the formation of a wolf under my skin."

"Well… that's not entirely true," Pomfrey sighed, helping her sit up while Lily helped her back out of Remus's housecoat. "Under ordinary circumstances, even those who willingly contract a strain of the lyncathropy virus do suffer harrowing physical ramifications."

"The heightened senses and the increased flexibility," Hermione nodded. "I can lick my own hip bone."

"You can?" Pomfrey asked, her eyes wide.

"Mhmm," Hermione nodded. "The bruise on my back that was so itchy seems to be the result of an increased amount of space between vertebrae within my spine, allowing me a wider range of movement."

"May I see it?" Pomfrey asked.

Hermione nodded, turning to let the pair of healers see her back.

"Does it still itch?" she asked.

"Not as much," Hermione shook her head. "It's sensitive to touch, though. And my tailbone is aching. I'm getting dizzy, seeing spots and aching all over. Everything feels like a struggle, but whether that's the lycanthropy, the depletion, or the effect of some spell, I don't know."

"Probably all three. I'm going to perform a number of charms on you, Hermione. Let me know if any of them make you feel ill or if they hurt, alright? They shouldn't, but you might be very sensitive to certain things at the moment."

Hermione waited, her knees shaky, while they examined her, poking and prodding with their wands and otherwise trying to ensure she wasn't going to die. Her stomach rumbled loudly and Hermione winced when she was handed several potions to take. Invigoration Draught. Nourishment Draught. Pain Potion. A multi-vitamin. Strengthening Solution. On and on they went, more than fifteen potions poured into her to keep her alive. By the time she'd finished them all – most of them tasting like pickled creatures she didn't want to think about – Hermione felt like she might vomit.

"You can put your clothes back on, love," Lily told her when they were finished, having also applied some sort of compress to her chest, a Numbing Salve to her tailbone, and something soothing to the itching spot on her back.

"Er… they're in my trunk," Hermione pointed toward the end of the bed where her trunk sat.

"You might as well put the robe back on, Hermione," Pomfrey told her. "You'll have to strip every time I examine you in the coming days. It's easier to get you in and out of the robe, I'm sure. And I imagine being surrounded by Remus's scent will help keep your little wolf calm, too."

Hermione nodded slowly, pulling the robe back on with Lily's help.

"Now can I eat something?" she asked.

"Yes. Get back into bed and we'll get you some tea and something to eat, love," Lily told her, helping her back into bed and tucking her in.

When Madam Pomfrey opened the door she jumped back in surprise to find Remus standing outside it, looking bushed but determined. He was clutching a tea tray which was stacked with a pot of tea, a plate piled high with what smelled like corned beef and pickle sandwiches, a slice of cherry pie, and a bowl of soup complete with a stack of toast.

"You can't give her all that, Remus," Madam Pomfrey told him. "She'll be sick."

"I'm starving," Hermione protested. "I promise I'll stop when I'm full."

Poppy looked torn before sighing and standing aside. Remus didn't speak as he entered the room, carrying the tray over and setting it onto Hermione's lap. She immediately picked up a sandwich and took a big bite, groaning in delight at the taste. She devoured the first sandwich while she watched Lily and Poppy hover as Remus dropped down to sit on the bed opposite Hermione's without a word.

"Erm…" she said, pouring a cup of tea the way she knew Remus took it and offering him the cup before turning to Lily and Madam Pomfrey. "Would you mind giving us a few minutes?"

Lily nodded and smiled gently, making it clear without a word that she supported her and would do whatever she could to help. Madam Pomfrey looked torn, opening her mouth like she might say something before watching the way Remus carefully accepted the cup of tea Hermione handed him and thought better of it. She left without another word, closing the door behind her.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: I'm so overwhelmed by the amount of response to this fic. Like, I'm literally speechless to see you all so interested in it. Thank you all so much for taking the time to read and review. Your encouragement keeps me going on the days when I want to quit everything and curl up under a rock. Much love!**

 **xx-Kitten.**

* * *

 **Tethered**

 _By Kittenshift17_

* * *

 **Chapter Six**

* * *

Hermione turned her attention to Remus, taking in the state of him now that there were no other distractions.

He looked terrible.

Which was something of a contradiction in Hermione's mind because though he looked terrible, he also looked fantastic. Currently he might have bloodshot eyes, five days of growth on his chin and dark circles beneath his eyes, but despite all that she could see how much younger he looked. The magic of the runes undoing the effects of the Potters dying had obviously been working upon him and suddenly the man she'd known was almost gone.

In his place was someone whose sandy brown hair bore not a single thread of grey and no matter how tired he looked, Hermione could discern none of the crows' feet or other wrinkles she'd grown accustomed to seeing on Remus. He looked young, happy, carefree even in his worry and his self-loathing

"You've been blaming yourself," Hermione said by way of greeting, Remus not having spoken directly to her since she'd awoken.

"You've been unconscious," Remus said and his tone suggested that he was almost making fun of her for stating the obvious.

Hermione sighed softly, slowly devouring her meal as she took in the sight of him and wondered if he was angry with her.

"Are you upset with me, Remus?" Hermione asked delicately when she'd polished off one of the sandwiches, handing him the other one and smiling gently when he hesitated before taking it as his stomach growled.

"Why would I be upset with you, Hermione?" he frowned. "How could I be? Because of you, I have four people back in my life that I thought I'd have to die before seeing again. I could never be angry with you for that."

"No, but you could be angry over the fact that you and I are now tethered," she told him. "I know it's not usually an arrangement many enter into if they can in any way avoid it. I know that you, in particular, have always loathed the idea of tying anyone to you, no matter that your nature actually demands it for the sake of your sanity. I don't imagine it's been easy for you to accept that our lives are suddenly tied together, Remus. In addition to your own demons regarding your lycanthropy, I doubt it's been fun dealing with the constant drain on you since you're literally the only thing tethering me to the planet and this existence at the present time. Combined with the ramifications of this tether on your own personal life in the form of Tonks and the others thinking terribly of you given our relative ages, I don't imagine you've had an enjoyable few days."

Remus eyed her for a long moment after polishing off the sandwich she'd handed over, his expression conflicted.

"First of all," he began, "I couldn't be angry with you because if having my friends and family back comes at the price of tethering you to this world, I would do it many times over, Hermione. Secondly, the ramifications of this tether on my personal life have been minimum because I have done my damnedest to avoid _having_ a personal life up until now. The entire household has been a little too concerned for your wellbeing and whether you'll survive the ritual to have even begun to consider your age relative to mine, the bond this creates between us, or even the effects it's going to have on you since you ingested my blood. Thirdly, if I have any qualms regarding self-loathing based on my lycanthropy, or guilt over what you will suffer as a result of biting me to create the tether, they would be my own personal issues and nothing for you to concern yourself with."

"They're mine to concern myself with if you're upsetting yourself because you feel guilty, thinking I'll be outcast as a result of my having a little wolf of my own, transformations or not. I know it's not some switch that can just be flipped to turn the guilt off, Remus, but I'd appreciate it very much if you would try to keep from feeing it. First of all, wolf or not, I was already an outcast. I have been one all my life. I was too magical for my muggle family, too weird for my muggle friends and too smart for my muggle teachers. I've this wretched hair and I had those big buck teeth that ensured I was either bound for the Ugly Duckling transformation, or just doomed to a life of frizz."

Hermione held her hand up when he opened his mouth like he might attempt to correct her self-perception.

"On top of all of those things, I am muggleborn, Remus. I'm used to being picked on for my blood, ridiculed for something I can't change, and jeered at over things beyond my control. In spite of it all, I still stomp about the castle at Hogwarts getting the best grades to show the smug pureblood sods that magical heritage isn't everything, and I still have friends and do just fine for myself, thank you very much. Now, will having to contend with a wolfish personality streak affect all of those things? Of course. Will I let it stop me or bother me?" Hermione smirked at him. "Not on your life. As such, I would very much appreciate it if you would be open to assisting me in adjusting to this in whatever way I have to adjust to it, _without_ making a fuss or feeling guilty and blaming yourself for 'doing this to me'. You didn't do it to me. I used you to do it to myself because I'm selfish enough to have wanted to live through bringing the Potter's back from the dead."

Remus eyed her quietly when she stopped speaking, waiting for him to absorb everything she'd said.

"You picked me knowing that tethering to me would help you survive, lycanthropic ramifications for you or not?" he confirmed.

Hermione nodded.

"And before anyone goes getting their wands crossed, I'd like to clear up that I kissed you for the sake of sealing the tether and I picked you simply because, as a werewolf, you were the only one in the room whose life-force is rather difficult to extinguish, no matter the magical depletion I was set to endure. I… well, I don't want anyone like Tonks to go getting the wrong idea that I did it because I fancy you or because I thought it would… I don't know… tie you to me in a romantic sense. I am very much aware that tethers merely bind life forces and allow for the transference of magic and energy between two people. They don't even work between certain people because the magical cores of those being tethered have to be similar. I'm sure you know all this, but had it not been that you and I have similar magical cores, the tether would have failed and you'd simply have had a little bite-mark scar to remember me by when I died."

Remus frowned at her.

"Please don't discuss your potential death so lightly, Hermione," he said seriously. "It… doesn't sit well. And not just because I consider you a friend."

Hermione suspected that meant that his wolf didn't like the idea of her dying now that her life force was tied to his. She also suspected his wolf would be only too thrilled by the idea of her having a wolf, too.

"Sorry," Hermione said gently. "But if we're going to discuss it then I'd like to point out that you need to stop trying to funnel your magic into me, Remus. The reason the tether with you works and is currently keeping me alive is because you're strong enough and powerful enough to withstand the drain I'm being _without_ you funnelling your magic into me. I mean it. If you keep doing it, you put us both as risk. Even if I have to be in a coma for a few weeks, I'll survive and eventually wake as long as you stay healthy. If you get too run down, we could both die and I'd really rather that didn't happen."

"We needed to wake you up," he said unrepentantly.

"So I've been told. But I've woken and I've shared what I know and now you're going to start taking care of yourself, Remus Lupin – even if only for my sake. Yeah, I'm not above guilting you into it, either, so don't give me that look. If it means you'll be healthy, I will dance all over your guilt and your sense of obligation to help me by staying healthy."

Remus's eyes flashed at her.

"Tricky little witch, aren't you?" he muttered, eyeing her curiously. "You shouldn't be this… calm."

"Because I almost died? Or because you've been risking us both by being a martyr?" Hermione asked.

"Because you have a wolf and you're in the presence of a werewolf. Most people who've been infected, no matter the level of their infection whether it's the full formation of a wolf like you've got, or just a few wolfish traits, usually feel… Well, everything I've heard suggests that the presence of a werewolf makes non-werewolves nervous and deferential and often a little… uh… reverent."

Hermione smiled slowly at the wizard sitting opposite her.

"You mean that niggling little sense I have that suggests that, weak and helpless or not, I should crawl over there and nip your chin before rolling over and letting you at my throat or my belly?" she asked. "Because it's there, I'm just currently not strong enough to do either of those things without passing out and there is food here. Food you brought me, no less."

"You're hungry enough to eat it all?" he confirmed, watching her polish off the soup and the stack of toast before she began digging into the rest of the sandwiches – handing him another one. When they were gone Hermione gobbled up the cherry pie and washed it all down with the tea he'd brought her.

He was smiling a very small smile by the time she finished.

"Am I always going to be this hungry from now on, or is this a combination of having a freshly minted wolf in addition to the effects of magical depletion?" Hermione asked.

Remus shrugged his shoulders. "A bit of both. You might often be this hungry, but right now you're so ravenous because you've been unconscious so long and your body needs fuel to heal. Up until you woke, you'd mostly been surviving off my strength and the potions Poppy and Severus injected you with."

Hermione nodded slowly, feeling full and sleepy once more and suspecting she might need more sleep very soon.

"How many days until the full moon?" she asked.

Remus winced slightly.

"Three," he admitted.

"Then you need to be conserving your strength. I've got a little wolf to see to mine, Remus. Save your strength. Promise me. I don't want to see you suffer because of me."

"Actually the amount of energy transferring directly from my wolf – Moony - into you for the sake of yours forming properly means I'll likely have the easiest and least painful transformation I've had since I was infected," Remus said mildly. "Despite the frequent scolding, I haven't been channelling everything into you _just_ to save your life in some act of selflessness. The less energy the wolf has, the less the change will hurt and the less aggressive I'll be afterward – Wolfsbane or not."

"Oh," said Hermione. "I didn't realise that. But I don't want you to, you know, risk us both. I'm very much looking forward to more moments of watching Harry interact with Lily and James."

Remus smiled widely at that and Hermione could see, despite how tired he looked, that there was very much a Marauder still alive and well inside of Remus Lupin. He looked mischievous and a little bit wicked, and Hermione couldn't help but smile in return.

"It's a glorious sight," he nodded his head. "Harry spends most of his time when he's not watching over you simply staring at the two of them."

"I can't say I blame him," Hermione nodded. "I didn't expect that they would look the same age they'd done when they died. It's a bit of a shock when Harry and James stand side by side."

"A good shock," Remus agreed and Hermione could see from his expression that he was very pleased to have them back in his life.

"Can I ask about Tonks?" she asked when Remus kept smiling, looking slightly adoring as he watched her begin to drift toward another exhausted sleep.

Remus made a face and a little growl escaped him when he curled his lip.

"Tonks is… a complication," he admitted.

"I've always thought of her in the regard of a friend or an older sister, but she's been decidedly unfriendly since the ritual," Hermione nodded. "I mean, I knew she fancied you, but it's not like the kiss to seal the tether actually meant anything. I kissed Harry, too and you don't see Ginny getting her knickers in a twist about it, do you?"

Remus winced. "Erm… she did, actually. A bit. Not that Harry noticed, of course. But those of us who were keeping an eye on things noticed that she was a bit out of sorts when she realised you'd had to kiss Harry to form the link to the Potters in order to call them from Beyond the Veil. She wasn't nearly as petty or as childish about is as Nymphodora, but she was a little bit hurt before realising the purpose of the interaction."

"Oh, dear," Hermione sighed. "I hope she's not upset with me. I mean, I really do think of Harry as a brother and kissing him was both alarming and uncomfortable, but necessary."

Remus laughed just a little bit when she made a face.

"I'll be sure to keep that to myself to avoid hurting his feelings, shall I?" he chuckled.

Hermione shrugged. "He knows where we stand and I'd wager it was as uncomfortable for him as for me. I'll tell him as much if need be."

Remus appeared amused by the idea.

"Tonks, on the other hand… Is she really that put out with me?"

"She's hurt," Remus sighed, looking uncomfortable. "For all that I have rejected her advances and discouraged her, she has remained infatuated and the hurt feelings she has as a result of my dismissiveness seem to have transferred to you. Since she cares for me, she doesn't like to blame me for her bad feelings, so she's pushing them on you as the first available obstacle in what she believes to be her inevitable seduction of me."

Hermione could tell from the way he scowled that Remus wasn't happy about it and that if Tonks had ever had any chance of convincing him to overlook his own issues to fall for her in return, she'd lost it now. Her reaction and her pettiness were obviously not attractive traits in Remus's eyes, which Hermione found curious given that as a werewolf he would be accustomed to as primal an instinct as possessiveness and jealousy.

"I didn't mean to make things uncomfortable between the two of you, Remus," Hermione said quietly, feeling sad. Before she'd been tethered to him, Hermione had held out secret hope that Tonks and Remus might one day be together. There seemed no chance of that now.

"You didn't do anything wrong, Hermione," Remus shook his head. "I should've been firmer with her in the beginning but if I'm completely honest, I wasn't as harsh as I should've been because it was nice to have someone overlook what I am and fancy me anyway, no matter how I threw it in her face and used it as a shield. If anything, your actions to form the tether have been beneficial in making me see what sort of person she is. Like most of the Black bloodline, she has a vindictive streak and can be downright irrational at times. I might've gotten used to it from Sirius after a lifetime, but that's because when the sod gets too out of line, I have no problem pummelling him.

"To see that same… I hesitate to say ugliness, but certainly the same malice in her as I've seen only in the very worst side of Sirius was both a shock and a wake-up call. Anything I might've entertained about her has been replaced with disgust and disappointment. It's one thing for Sirius to pit his will against the likes of Severus or someone his equal in both magical power and ruthlessness, not to mention age. It's another to excuse Tonks the same thing when you're still just a teenager, Hermione. You might have her beat with cleverness and certain skills, but she's a powerful witch, no matter her clumsiness. She should know better than to set her will against that of a child."

Hermione felt a strange little twist inside of herself to be called a child by Remus though she knew he didn't mean it spitefully. She supposed she should be grateful that he thought of her that way. When she was stronger, she suspected there would be some hard questions to face pertaining to her feelings for Remus and his for her. She could truthfully say that she'd never thought of him in romantic sense, no matter her admiration and respect for him. He was very dear to her, she'd admit. She liked that he was easy to talk to and even better read than she was herself. She liked that he made time to talk to her whenever she came to him with a question about some bit of obscure lore or when she wanted to debate some archaic wizarding law.

She could also admit that even when he'd had grey hair and wrinkles, she'd found him handsome and funny and might've wholeheartedly agreed with Tonks whenever the other witch went on about how dreamy Remus was. But she'd believed him off limits first as her teacher, and then as the object of a friend's infatuation. That being said, it wasn't thrilling to know that despite kissing her back when she'd snogged him, he clearly still thought of her in the way most adults tended to think of teenagers. Self-righteous, prone to irrationality and self-absorption, and outside the realm of attraction. In the eyes of the law and propriety, those things made him a good man. In the eyes of a teenage girl whose life had just been tethered to his, it was a bit of a blow, but Hermione wouldn't let that show.

This wasn't some romantic connection and she ought to be relieved that he wasn't suddenly entertaining fantasies about her. No matter how much younger he might look now, Hermione was still nineteen years younger than him.

"Just the same, Remus," Hermione said. "I'm sorry if it's caused you any grief. I didn't intend it."

"I know," Remus smiled at her gently. "That's what makes Tonks's reaction all the less acceptable. Had you spitefully attempted to usurp my affections or some rot, she'd be justified in her hurt feelings, but it's clear that wasn't your intent and that she is therefore being irrational and unfair. I'll speak to her about it eventually, after the full moon, perhaps. Until then she hasn't been by to see how you are, and good riddance. If she gives you any trouble in future, I want you to tell me, Hermione."

Hermione nodded her head slowly, sighing.

"So, how have things been, otherwise?" she asked, changing the subject.

"We've all been worried about you." Remus shrugged his shoulders. "And everyone was ready to give Dumbledore an earful after what he did with your parents. But everything else has been… complicated. Confusing. Overwhelming. Thrilling. Having James and Lily back has been wonderful and it's notably increased the amount of happiness in this wretched house – especially for Sirius. The ritual might be restoring his looks, but James's forgiveness and return have restored Sirius to his former glory before Azkaban wrecked him and he had to get drunk every day to drown out his demons. He's back to the Padfoot I knew at school and I confess, I'd missed him. Him and Prongs. Lily, too. They're so the same, yet so different too. They look the same and James is as cheeky as ever, but it's all tempered by the tranquillity they seemed to have found in death. No one was more surprised than Severus, I think, by James's newfound friendliness and acceptance of him. Sirius is baffled, of course."

"I did wonder about that when they hugged and when Lily mentioned that Professor Snape had been here almost as often as the rest of you, watching over me," Hermione admitted.

"Lily explained that being dead was a bit like being an invisible spectator to everyone's life as it goes on without you. You're at peace – most of the time – but you can still watch over those you love. Though you and I and the rest of the living haven't witnessed what Severus endured and continues to endure to play spy for the Order, James and Lily _know._ They've been right there with him in the moments when he is tortured for the cause. They've been there when he drags his broken body home to patch himself up alone, hated by the Order, disliked among the Death Eaters, always alone and at times, little more than a puppet for two masters who both think they can outwit the other. James is… surprisingly grateful to Severus for all he has done that we'd no idea he suffered."

Hermione nodded thoughtfully. She hadn't been Snape's biggest fan, but she had always been aware that he must suffer loneliness and pain to be so universally loathed, no matter how much of it he brought upon himself.

"Are they… friends, then?" she asked. "I know from Professor Snape's comments when antagonising Harry, that he has loathed James for years."

Remus's lips twitched into a crooked smile.

"To be honest with you, Hermione, there are a lot of things about Severus and we Marauders that no one knows. When we were all at school, back when Lily thought James to be a big-headed, arrogant toe-rag, Severus was her very best friend. We could all see how jealously he guarded her friendship, and James often went out of his way – after falling for Lily – to actually try and be decent to Severus. The memories Harry has seen and the perception you all have of Severus is one of the bullied, angry teenager picked on by the group of handsome troublemakers, but it wasn't always that way. In the beginning we were all decent enough to each other. Just dumb twelve-year-olds, we Marauders got used to Snape being around because he was always with Lily and James was always trailing after her when he wasn't pranking with us and playing Quidditch.

"Sirius wasn't kidding when he mentioned how Severus used to be impossibly infuriating and hex-happy when he was cheerful and back then we all had more to be cheerful for. For a time we were all… I hesitate to say friends, because the things we did to him as we all aged, and the things he did in return, one friend could never do to another. But we were prickly accomplices often in our youth, before he was seduced by the Dark Arts and turned on Lily. I have wondered, in the past, what our lives might've looked like if Severus had been sorted into Gryffindor with us, rather than into Slytherin with those other budding Death Eaters.

"Make no mistake, he is sharp as a dagger and quick-witted. For a time, I even secretly wondered if perhaps he and Sirius fancied one another, the way they'd flirt and taunt and push each other." Remus chuckled, shaking his head and Hermione raised her eyebrows. "Something about their deaths and resurrection has allowed James and Lily to look past all the bad blood that Sirius, Severus and I hung onto. Having spent a year as colleagues with Severus, myself, it's unusual and unprecedented, but it's not entirely unexpected. We are… attempting friendship. I do know that James approves of Severus and Lily mending fences, and Severus seems to finally be at peace with the fact that Lily married James in the end and he can see now that she's happy with him, rather than seeing through the lenses of his own hatred and only seeing James's arrogance."

Hermione nodded slowly. "They're not likely to try to kill each other?"

"Not with any seriousness," Remus smiled at her gently. "Sirius is… well, Sirius. He'll always be an incurable git and he pushes Snape's buttons like a boy playing with a light switch for the simple pleasure of the reaction. Severus is much the same, actually. He's as cutting and cruel as ever, but he gets a look in his eyes when Lily scolds him and swats his arm now that I haven't seen since we were eleven, before he and Sirius took things too far."

"Did you really ever think they fancied each other?" Hermione asked, giggling at the very idea.

Remus laughed.

"I did, actually. Make no mistake, Hermione, you might've heard a good many things about Sirius's skill at luring witches into bed with him, but as a teenager he endured the same questions about his sexuality that most teenagers suffer. Neither of them know that I know, mind you, but there was an incident in our third year they'd die before admitting to."

"An incident?" Hermione asked, leaning forward despite her exhaustion, curiosity giving her strength.

"We were pranksters," Remus shrugged unrepentantly. "A holiday favourite was charmed mistletoe and I _know_ Sirius tricked Severus to end up under a sprig of it with him after a study session one night. I might've walked in on them, so to speak."

"Snogging?" Hermione asked, giggling.

Remus nodded.

"Severus wasn't thrilled about it, mind you. Had his wand pressed to Sirius's throat, actually, and looked like he was torn between figuring out how to kiss anyone at all, completely confused because it was Sirius - another bloke - and all that jazz. He actually hexed Sirius when they broke apart, now that I think about it. And Sirius got vicious in his pranks with Severus after that. It didn't occur to me at the time – I just thought it was a laugh or a means of getting free from the mistletoe, like usual – but maybe the hex hurt Sirius feelings, after all."

Hermione giggled.

"Like usual?" she asked, catching that little slip.

"The thing about pulling pranks, Hermione, is that sometimes you fall into your own traps. The number of times I've snogged Sirius and James is laughable. The only way to get out from under those wretched sprigs was to snog whoever you were stuck with and we tended to do most of our pranking after hours and under the Invisibility Cloak."

"I have trouble imagining you snogging another man," Hermione confessed, laughing.

"I don't make a habit of it," he laughed. "Sirius does."

"You just said Sirius was only experimenting with his sexuality."

"He was," Remus shrugged. "And while I don't think he's regularly attracted to men, if he's had enough whiskey or in a certain mood, he tries to put the moves on just about anyone with a pulse. Me included."

"Ever taken him up on it?" Hermione asked nosily before covering her mouth and blushing, realising how rude it was to ask him about his private business.

Remus looked surprised by the question before a wicked grin crawled across his face.

"What if I said I had?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"I don't think I'd believe you," Hermione admitted.

Remus laughed.

"I don't know, Hermione. He wears his hair long and he's so pretty. Enough whiskey and I could mistake Sirius for a girl." He laughed. "And I'm a werewolf. For breeding purposes, we animals might fuck the opposite sex, but we canines aren't picky about what we hump for simple pleasure."

Hermione's eyes widened in shock both to hear him swearing and to see him so utterly mischievous. She covered her mouth in surprise, giggling even more as she shook her head.

"I don't believe it," she said finally.

"Why not?" he asked. "I'm a werewolf. You're well-read on my condition. You undoubtedly know that one of the pre-moon symptoms I face is raging libido. A warm body is a warm body, Hermione."

"Except that in such exchanges your wolf would insist on dominance and Sirius Black is many things but submissive is _not_ one of them," she said before clapping her hand over her mouth once more, her cheeks flushing crimson when she realised she'd just told Remus, a former Professor of hers, that she thought he'd be domineering in bed.

"He can be persuaded," Remus said, winking at her and Hermione dissolved into giggles, shaking her head and not believing him for a second.

"If I have nightmares about Sirius and Professor Snape being inappropriate, I might smack you when I wake up, Remus," she told the werewolf as her eyelids drooped despite her good humour.

"If I hear you whimpering in your sleep, I'll assume it's because of steamy dreams, rather than pain or your wolf, shall I?" he teased and Hermione fell asleep with a smile on her face and the distinct impression that Remus Lupin was flirting with her.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Another update! Finally! Yay! Happy Christmas and a Fruitful New Year to all of my delightful readers and reviewers. You're all so amazing that we've hit 950+ reviews on a fic that is currently quite short. I'm feeling very appreciated. Sorry this one took so long. Things were flowing nicely until Severus turned up being his snarky self and messed with my mojo. I hope you like it. I await your shrieks of amusement with baited breath.**

 **xx-Kitten.**

* * *

 **Tethered**

 _By Kittenshift17_

* * *

 **Chapter Seven**

* * *

Remus chuckled, shaking his head to himself as Hermione dropped off to sleep, still smiling. She was a brave little thing, he'd give her that. To sit alone in his presence three days out from the full moon when he was at his most lupine before the change, having nurtured a little wolf of her own and to refrain from trembling, submitting to his dominance like a lower ranked wolf in the pack, or have jumped him, suggested she was either even more exhausted than he'd thought, or stronger than he'd realised.

This close to the moon, he was at his most unpredictable and his most alluring. He knew it had been affecting the others in the house, and yet Hermione hadn't made any attempts to flirt with him or to try and draw him to her. He hadn't detected even the faintest whiff of arousal from her, despite his proximity, and that was certainly saying something. Even Ron and Harry had experienced the uncomfortable stirring of their libidos when they'd fallen asleep in the spare bed while he'd been in the room, much to their mutual embarrassment and his endless amusement.

Carefully, he got to his feet and moved over to the sleeping witch, taking away the tea tray before she could disturb it in her slumber. The urge to take her hand once more was almost crippling, but Remus fought it back. She was right. He needed to conserve his strength. The moon would be easier thanks to his depletion, but he didn't want to risk her health along with his own when she'd done something so monumentally wonderful.

"Remus?" Sirius asked quietly from the doorway when Remus set the tea tray on the set of drawers by the door, unable to leave her alone long enough to return it to the kitchen.

Remus looked over at his best friend, smiling when he saw that Sirius's long black hair was still damp from his shower and he was dressed in fresh clothes – an old band-shirt that Remus hadn't laid eyes on since the early 80s and a loose-fitting pair of track pants that hung low on his hips and completely contradicted the punk-rock look of his shirt and his hair. Remus chucked at the sight of a knitted cardigan he wore to round out the look, which he'd obviously raided Remus's cupboard for. It was a strange thing to see Sirius looking so young and so devilishly handsome and yet dressed for bed. He was made for ripped up jeans and leather jackets, it seemed, not knitted sweaters.

Yet, there were memories that lurked in the back of his mind spent side-by side with Sirius while the rebellious, punk-rocker could be found snuggled into one of Remus's jumpers, and wearing flamboyantly garish knitted socks in shades of bright orange and yellow when the mood struck him to wallow. Remus fondly recalled the weeks following Harry's birth when they'd all been pitching in to help raise the newborn wizard who'd insisted on crying and screeching every hour, on the hour, for the first four months of his life. He'd seen the bags under Sirius's eyes and the bone-tired weariness of not showering in three days. He'd seen Sirius curled up with baby Harry asleep on his chest, his hair as lank as Severus's, his clothes stained with baby-vomit, and even with a crusty line of baby food smeared across his cheek, once.

It was refreshing and achingly familiar to see Sirius kicking about in a stolen cardigan, which Remus noted idly, was one he hadn't seen since he'd been in his twenties. In fact, it was definitely one of his, he realised, smiling softly at his friend and supposing that this was where all of his favourite sweaters had gone. The sticky-fingered dog in his life had been pinching them.

"You alright?" Sirius asked him, smiling kindly as he entered the room and crossed to drop down and sit on the spare bed opposite Hermione, lounging against the wall and looking the picture of comfort and ease as he stretched out.

"I'm alright," Remus sighed, nodding his head and letting Sirius take his hand to tug him down next to him.

"You smell terrible, mate," Sirius told him when he'd tugged him around until Remus's cheek was pressed to his chest.

Remus chuckled just a bit. "So much for that charm you used to have, Pads."

"I save it for those I'm trying to woo into bed, mate."

"As though you've never tried to woo me?" Remus challenged, recalling his conversation with Hermione's minutes earlier on the very subject and beginning to chuckle, just a bit.

"Pretty sure I succeeded, mate," Sirius scoffed. "And that was back when you recalled basic hygiene and smelled delicious, rather than like a quidditch dressing shed."

"Eat me, Pads," Remus retorted.

"Not until you bathe," Sirius laughed.

Remus shook his head, too tired to shower, even knowing he could really use one. He closed his eyes, listening to the steady rhythm of Sirius's heartbeat under his ear.

"How's our girl doing?" Sirius asked him, threading his fingers through Remus's hair and scratching lightly behind his ears in a way that he knew would turn Remus to putty.

"Exhausted," Remus said. "Still completely drained. Ravenous, before she drifted off."

"She got a wolf?" Sirius wanted to know.

"Yeah," Remus sighed. "Strong little thing, too. Did you see the way she dragged herself out of that bathroom even though she could barely stand on her own? That was all her little wolf."

"Responding to your guilt and self-loathing, no doubt," Sirius said. "I'm going to enjoy having so many more people around to agree with me about how great you are when you start whining."

"Whining?" Remus growled softly.

"Don't pretend you're not a whiner, Moony," Sirius chuckled. "You whine like a kicked puppy about your lycanthropy sometimes, and it's all I can do not to shove you against something and _show_ you that you're amazing."

"Why is it that whenever I leave you two alone, you end up propositioning each other?" James drawled from the doorway right at that moment, and Remus opened one eye to shoot him a glare.

"Because when you're not around, we haven't got to worry about you killing the mood with your awkwardness, Prongs," Sirius retorted.

"Awkward this, Pads," James said, flicking him the forks even as he threw himself down on Sirius's other side and pressed his cheek to the other shoulder, his nose almost touching Remus's as he laid his head on Sirius's chest, too.

"I'm not snogging you, mate," Remus warned when James rubbed the tip of his nose to his own.

"Don't be a plonker, Moony. You've been wanting to kiss me for years."

"I was lucky to survive the past experiences I've had snogging you, Prongs," Remus retorted. "Poor Lily must breathe through her ears when you snog her. She wouldn't be able to breathe through her throat when you stick your tongue down there."

"He is something of a squid about it, isn't he?" Lily laughed from the doorway.

"Lily!" James protested, scandalised.

"They've got a point, mate," Sirius said. "You get too eager and use too much tongue. You gotta use the tip, not the whole thing."

"Yeah," Lily said. "Just the tip will do."

"Witch, I'll use just the tip the next time I crawl between your thighs, and then we'll see who wants my whole tongue, after all," James threatened his wife and Lily turned a brilliant shade of pink.

"James!" she gasped, scandalised. "You can't talk to me like that. Imagine if Harry heard you!"

James snorted. "He's a teenager, love. You saw him snogging that girl of Chang. He could use all the help he can get."

"Not from you, mate. He doesn't need to add rotten snogger to his list of famous traits," Sirius needled.

"Keep it up and I'll snog _you_ , Padfoot," James threatened.

"I could use a decent snogging session," Sirius shrugged. "Lily, love, you up for it?"

"Anytime," Lily smirked, and James pulled back to pummel Sirius.

"Oi!" Sirius squirmed, laughing. Remus laughed too, watching James trying to deaden his best friend's arms.

"You won't be snogging my wife, Pads," James informed him.

"Yeah, sure I won't," Sirius teased. "You've got to sleep sometime, you tosser."

"Yeah, with my arms wrapped around my witch in my hold-of-death," James retorted.

"Please," Sirius rolled his eyes. "Like I couldn't still wiggle my way in and snog her if I wanted."

"Get your own witch," James chuckled, ceasing his pummelling when Lily dropped into his lap and took his place, laying her cheek on Sirius's chest and rubbing her nose to the tip of Remus's.

"Yours is sweeter and prettier than any of the ones I've been eyeing off," Sirius protested, smirking to have Lily lying on his chest, too. "I like 'em fiery, you know."

"I thought you had a thing for that new witch in the Order that Tonks brought 'round?" James asked.

"Yeah, well, do you see her?" Sirius asked, peering around.

"What she doesn't know, and all that?" James guessed, shaking his head good naturedly.

"Fidelity and monogamy was always your thing mate. It's in my nature to be a complete dog to women."

"Remus isn't like that," Lily pointed out. "You're just a tart, Padfoot."

"Tart was made to be shared, love," Sirius smirked. "And everyone wants a slice."

"I'd rather go without," Remus chuckled.

"Bollocks, you would," Sirius argued, one hand still tangled in Remus's hair. "I reckon if James would clear off and stop awkward-ing up the place, I could talk you into bed in ten seconds, flat."

"Only if it's by agreeing to be my pillow and agreeing to shut your gob so I can sleep," Remus said, his eyes closed.

"You lot are rotten for my self-esteem," Sirius declared dramatically. "How am I to feel desirable when you all turn me down?"

"Whose turning who down for what?" Harry asked, wandering into the room still trying to wriggle into a jumper – which Remus noted when he cracked one eye open to watch the boy, was _also_ one of his.

"Your mother won't shag me," Sirius informed him.

"I should hope not," Harry said, his cheeks turning red at the topic. "I'm a little old for a baby brother, half-brother or not."

"Well," James sighed. "So much for that idea, eh Lils?"

"You were thinking about having more kids?" Harry asked, looking surprised and Remus watched him through one bleary eye as Harry looked torn between the idea of letting his parents enjoy their life now that they were alive again, and wanting to pout at the idea of a sibling getting to be raised by them and loved by them as he'd been without all these years.

"Thought about it, mate," James nodded, patting the bed next to himself and slinging his arm around Harry when the boy dropped down after he checked on Hermione to make sure she was comfortable. "We hadn't planned on stopping at just you, you know? I wanted a whole Quidditch team."

Harry chuckled. "That would've been quite the sight."

"Still could be," James grinned. "Unless you mother decides she fancies Sirius more than me. Then I might cry and run off with Moony."

"As though I'd have you, mate?" Remus chuckled.

"Snivellus, then," James shrugged, and Harry's eyes bugged wide while Sirius gagged.

"I'd rather you ran off me with than him, mate," Sirius said. "We'll let Moony have Lils and run off together, eh? What do you say? Like the good old days."

"Oh, I remember those," Lily giggled. "You should've seen my parent's faces, Harry, when I introduced them to James and his boyfriend, Sirius."

"You two dated."

"Nah," James laughed, ruffling Harry's messy hair. "Pads is too much of a tart for me. And I had my eye on Lils."

"Both eyes. And both hands. And his tongue," Sirius said. "You've never seen anyone so hopelessly in love, Harry. There was drool on more than one occasion."

"Like, once," James rolled his eyes.

"Once a day," Remus teased. "Lily would walk by and flick her hair, and you dribbled your pumpkin juice every bloody time."

"Remember how we had to teach him repelling charms when he kept losing us points for having filthy shirts?" Sirius laughed.

"Don't listen to 'em, Harry. Bitter sods are just sad they couldn't lure a witch like your mother," James said, grinning.

Harry laughed when Sirius and Remus both walloped James.

"Slim pickings?" Harry guessed. "Or too bent for each other."

"You snog a bloke one time," Remus muttered.

"One?" Lily scoffed, laughing at him.

"I'm not above spanking you, Mrs Potter," Remus threatened the witch peering at him across Sirius chest.

"Got anything fun to use?" Lily asked, and Harry's face went scarlet again.

"You know, I had these ideas in my head of you guys…" he began, looking sheepish.

"And maintained them even _after_ meeting these two tosspots?" James asked, ruffling Sirius's hair and making the animagus's growl when he pulled it impishly. "Didn't think we were stiffs who couldn't have a laugh, did you?"

"I certainly never imagined my mother asking what my Dad's best mate wanted to spank her with, let's put I that way," Harry said, blushing.

"Yeah, Lils," James protested. "You're scarring the boy for life."

"Remus started it."

"I'll finish it, too," Remus smirked. "If Prongs will let me."

"Oh, so you need _his_ permission but aren't troubled for mine?" Lily demanded, grinning.

"Please," Remus laughed. "We all know you only went for Prongs because I turned you down, love."

"As though you'd _ever_ turn me down, Remus?"

"I prefer brunettes," Remus grinned impishly at her.

"Yes, I'm sure you do," Lily said knowingly, and Remus narrowed his eyes when she darted her eyes in Hermione's direction though Harry couldn't see.

"Don't start, Lils," he warned her quietly. "Your match-making is even less popular than your Christmas pudding, love. Just leave off, yeah?"

"I make a delicious Christmas pudding," Lily protested, looking mildly offended.

"Sure, if you're a starving git with rocks for brains and burned out taste buds," Sirius scoffed.

"Sirius Black, I will ban you from Christmas lunch if you insult my cooking one more time."

"Bollocks, you will," Sirius said. "Mum will insist on having me 'round. The woman loves me more than you, love."

"It's probably true," Lily sighed.

"Probably?" Sirius scoffed. "Please, we took bets on how long you'd last with Prongs once you met Dorea. The witch adores me. I'm obviously the better choice for her boy."

"Too bad you smell like that, eh Pads."

"Like sex-on-a-stick?" Sirius offered.

"Like a wet dog that's been left in a humid room," James taunted.

"Better than wet stag. You smell like a quagmire, mate," Sirius told him.

"Juniper and pine, thank you," James corrected.

"Arrogance, more like. Very distinctive," Sirius taunted.

"I deflated my head, thank you."

"Yeah, from the size of the moon to the size of a large mountain," Sirius said.

"I'm not above slipping Hair-Removal potion into your morning cuppa, Pads. Don't forget that," James said, grinning wickedly.

"You wouldn't dare!" Sirius gasped, reaching for his hair as though fearful.

"He has before," Remus reminded him, winking at Harry when he began to laugh.

"I'd almost forgotten," James smirked. "Remember how he sobbed, Moony?"

"I've never seen anyone look quite so pathetic, or so utterly bald," Remus chuckled.

"There was sobbing?" Harry laughed. "It's just hair, Sirius."

" _Just_ hair?" Sirius repeated looking scandalised. "Harry, mate… I don't think I've ever been so insulted. Here, you feel."

He took Harry's hand and lifted it to his own silky locks.

"Just hair?" Sirius said, disgusted. "Pure silk, mate."

"He's very attached to his mop, darling," Lily said. "We mustn't upset him about how shaggy it is. He's been known to cry when his hair was disparaged."

"Once," Sirius growled, huffing.

"I recall at least seven occasions," James disagreed. "There was that time Marlene told you it was frizzy, and you stormed off in a huff. Remember we found him in the showers muttering about blind frizz-balls and working enough Sleak-Eazy's into his hair to drown a puppy, Moony?"

"And the time it got all knotted after he crashed through the forest on his broom in that blizzard," Remus chuckled. "I think I spent almost three hours picking twigs out of it while he sobbed in my lap, refusing to let me even aim my wand _near_ his precious tresses to remove them faster."

"Just because you two have hair that looks like something a cat coughed up doesn't mean the rest of us shouldn't take pride in our glorious locks," Sirius said pompously.

"Prissy twat," James accused.

"Eat me, Prongs," Sirius retorted.

"Like that, wouldn't you? Been begging me to for years," James smirked.

Harry blushed again as Remus laughed.

"One day you'll wake up choking on it, Prongs," Sirius threatened darkly. "We'll see just whose laughing, then."

"Probably me," James said. "Laughing that you think you've got enough there to choke anyone with at all."

Sirius punched him in the arm.

"Certainly not what Lils was saying last night, mate," Sirius retorted. "But then, everything probably looks huge to her, after seeing your stumpy little…"

He was cut off when Lily pressed her hand to his lips.

"Not in front of Harry, Padfoot," she chided.

"He's a teenager, love," Sirius reminded her. "Not a bloody tot."

"Is it always going to be like this?" Harry asked, shaking his head, still blushing.

"Nah," Sirius smirked. "Most of the time we're worse. Toning it down for you, mate."

"It's true, darling," Lily sighed. "The number of rumours running around Hogwarts about James and Sirius while we were there was criminal. I spent half my time doubting James fancied me when he was obviously smitten with Sirius."

"Oi, I had a thing for Remus, not this tosser. I've actually got taste, you know?" James protested.

"The only thing we can't fault you for," Remus smirked. "Certainly picked a winner in Lily, anyway. Except for the pudding, obviously."

"Remus Lupin, I _will_ pull your tail," she warned him, narrowing her eyes.

"You know I like that," Remus retorted, grinning wickedly at her.

"Git," she accused.

"Prude," he retorted.

Harry began to laugh, shaking his head even as his grandmother appeared in the doorway.

"Are they having another sexually charged group argument, Harry, darling?" Dorea Potter asked shrewdly.

"Yes," Harry admitted. "And threatening to give me siblings, though whether they'd be full or half-siblings, I'm not certain."

"You think I'd let these tossers impregnate my wife with their devil spawn?" James asked, scandalised.

"Oh, please," Sirius rolled his eyes. "We were all convinced Harry was mine until he came out with your mop of hair, Prongs."

Harry's eyes widened when everyone nodded sombrely.

"Wait…" he began, frowning at his mother.

Remus had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing when Harry's eyes grew wider and wider as he looked between the four of them.

"You… Mum?" Harry frowned.

Lily bit her lip, trying her hardest not to giggle and Sirius gave him a wicked grin. James wore a terribly sad expression, as though he'd feared it throughout Lily's pregnancy.

"You've… with Sirius? And… Remus?" Harry asked, stammering in horror.

Lily's laughter escaped when poor Harry actually looked like he might faint in shock at the news.

"Oh, darling," she giggled, pulling a bewildered Harry into her embrace. "You are entirely too gullible."

James, Sirius, and Remus all roared with laughter when Harry emitted a sound of shocked protest before wilting into her embrace, bewildered.

"You're disturbing our patient," a low voice came from the doorway before they'd gotten their laughter under control and Remus looked over to see Severus looming in the doorway, looking on with a sneer.

"We were just telling Harry how we all feared he was Sirius's until he was born," James grinned, still chuckling.

Severus raised one eyebrow.

"When he arrived at Hogwarts in rags, looking entirely too defiant, I briefly wondered if he was mine," Severus drawled with a perfectly straight face and Harry paled, looking ill.

"Sev!" Lily exclaimed reproachfully.

Severus smirked cruelly.

"Too far, mate," James said, shaking his head.

"Was it?" Severus asked. "She didn't complain, at the time. Did you, Lily?"

"You're not funny," Lily told him.

"That's a matter of perspective. Imagine, Potter. But for a twist of fate, you might've been calling me Dad, instead of Professor," Severus smirked, twisting the knife.

Harry shook his head mutely, his face pale.

"Ignore him, darling," Lily told him. "He's a very wicked man who thrives on causing mental anguish. He's never even seen me in my knickers, let alone been underneath."

"No?" Severus raised one eyebrow in challenge and Lily narrowed her eyes on him.

"Better not have," James warned, no longer looking like he found it so funny.

"Afraid I beat you to the snitch, Potter?" Severus taunted, utterly revelling in teasing them.

Remus shook his head. He would give it to the man, he certainly had a knack for looking entirely convincing when he spun lies out of the ether like Rumpelstiltskin spinning gold out of straw.

"No," James admitted. "Just aware that you wanted to, even after I married her."

"Are you sure he's yours, Potter?" Severus asked, flicking his wand at Harry, transfiguring the boy's pyjama's into long black robes before making his hair grow longer, giving it a lank appearance. Harry squawked in protest but Severus ignored him, levitating the glasses from Harry's face, too.

The way Harry looked uncannily like Severus with the hair and the robes, and the glasses gone, was unnerving and Remus almost laughed.

"You're not funny, Severus," Lily told him.

"Lupin thinks I am," Severus smirked.

"Remus!" Lily hissed. "You know you'll only encourage him."

"Fortunately," Severus drawled, flicking his wand to put Harry back to rights. "He's not mine. Though I wouldn't be opposed to helping spawn that quidditch team of children you always wanted, Evans."

"You'll keep your greasy mitts to yourself, Snape," James warned.

"Will I?" Severus smirked, and Remus laughed, unable to help himself.

"If I have to have siblings, can they please all just be full-siblings?" Harry blurted out, eyeing his parents as though fearful they might actually consider anything else.

"Oh, but darling, wouldn't a little sister with Sirius's pretty locks and my eyes just look an angel?" Lily cooed, unable to keep from taunting the boy. "Or Remus's wicked grin and my red hair. Just imagine."

"They'd look like full siblings if they were mine, Potter," Severus taunted, smirking wickedly even as he crossed the room and leaned over Hermione's bed, flicking his wand to check on her vital signs and ensure she was in no danger.

"Gran!" Harry said, looking to his grandmother for help when they all seemed intent on tormenting the gullible young wizard. Remus was laughing so hard his sides hurt when Dorea wrapped her arms around her grandson.

"Don't listen to them, darling. Your mother only has eyes for my James," Dora smiled, pressing her lips to Harry's forehead. "Though I confess I would certainly like more grandchildren to adore. Remus, Sirius, I do believe each of you owe me one."

"Not a chance," Remus shook his head, closing his eyes once more as his laughter died away at the very thought of reproducing and inflicting himself or his curse on a biological child of his own.

"How many times must I educate about the reproductive system and genetics, Moony?" Sirius demanded.

"As many as I've had to educate you about the importance of contraception, I imagine," Remus drawled.

"Thank Merlin for small mercies that one of you succeeded," Severus sneered. "I think I'd quit on the spot the day your spawn arrived at Hogwarts, Black."

"Yeah, right," Sirius rolled his eyes. "You'd probably be looking them over to figure out if by some twisted genetic mistake, they were yours."

Severus looked rather like he might be ill and James began to laugh.

"I wouldn't be surprised if you've unknowingly already taught some of his spawn, Snape," James said. "I reckon a few of those witches you were teaching when Harry started school were his. I saw an abundance of teenaged witches with grey eyes and luscious black locks."

Sirius paled.

"I _did_ notice a proclivity of a few of them to cause mischief and think entirely too much of themselves," Severus smirked, only too willing to torment Sirius at every opportunity, even if it meant playing nice with James.

"You're not funny," Sirius said. "I have no children."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Severus shook his head. "A few of them would've been the right age for having been conceived when you were tarting around in our sixth year."

"No," Sirius denied.

"Yes," Severus smirked.

Sirius shook his head, unable to stand the idea of having children of his own that had been raised without him. He felt enough guilt for having missed raising Harry, let alone the guilt he would feel to have fathered children without knowing it.

"Well, if you do have some, dear, I want to meet them," Dorea said, smoothing an affectionate hand through Harry's hair and pressing a kiss to the boy's forehead.

Remus watched, one eyes slitted open, as their boy relaxed into the embrace, sighing contentedly to find himself surrounded by people who loved him. Even if Severus _was_ imposing, just a bit. And he was their boy, Remus smiled slowly as he watched them. He felt as much Remus's very own son, as he was James and Lily's.

"How's our girl doing?" Lily asked when Severus straightened after injecting Hermione with a dose of Invigoration Potion to help her regain her strength.

"Still completely depleted," Severus said, frowning. "She may not have reclaimed access to her magic stores before school resumes next September."

"We don't have to go back this year, do we?" Harry frowned.

"She's in no condition to travel, Potter," Severus pointed out. "And I believe the Headmaster means to keep the events at the Ministry that result in your parents' return as quiet as possible."

"Has anyone heard from him since he wiped the Grangers' memories?" Dorea frowned.

"He is less than pleased with all of us," Severus nodded. "Your revival had thrown a niffler into the cogs of his carefully laid plans."

"Because he hoped to have my Harry marching himself off to die like a pig for slaughter," Lily said darkly.

"What?" Harry asked, his brow furrowing.

Remus lifted his head when Dorea, James, Lily and Severus all shared a loaded glance.

"There may no longer be a need for him to do so," Severus said quietly and Remus frowned, confused by the sudden secretiveness.

"Dumbledore wanted him killed?" Sirius asked in a low, dangerous voice.

"Potter was harbouring… a horcrux," Severus frowned and Remus gasped, sitting up as his eyes widened.

"What?" he asked hoarsely. "No."

"Yes," Severus nodded. "Since the night in Godric's Hollow. Lily's blood magic to protect Harry caused his Killing curse to backfire, and his soul was – we believe – already so fragmented, that the rebounding spell in combination with Lily's murder cause a silver of the Dark Lord's soul to detach and to latch onto the only living thing in the room."

"Harry," Sirius breathed, his face pale.

"What's a Horcrux?" Harry asked. "Dumbledore wants me dead?"

"He believed that if you went willing to the Dark Lord to die, the Horcrux would perish instead of you. He believed you might, technically, survive the Killing Curse a second time, but only if you went to the Dark Lord _willing_ to lay down your life in offer to save your friends. Doing so would, he believed, activate the same blood magic your mother performed, thus protecting you once more."

"You doubt him?" Harry asked.

"I doubt that anyone could survive the Killing curse once, let alone twice, Potter," Severus said.

"You said that you think there is no longer a need for him to do so?" James frowned. "You think the Horcrux is gone?"

Severus shrugged his shoulders. "I have no way of knowing. But when Miss Granger returned the four of you from Beyond the Veil, tying herself to your bloodline, _something_ would've had to be transferred over to the other side as payment."

"The blood magic she performed," Dorea nodded. "And her very own essence."

Severus shook his head. "Her Life magic was required to revive you to corporeal form, yes. But it was given to each of you, not to Thanatos. Something would've had to have been given in payment for your lives. With her own life-force tethered to Lupin's and thus, to this plane of existence, and with Harry healed when the four of you crossed the Veil and thus tethered here for a while longer, I suspect that the only non-tethered life-force close enough to be accepted as payment would have been the Horcrux."

"But we healed Harry," Lily frowned. "If we healed the host of You-Know-Who's soul, that would've kept it here, too."

Severus shook his head.

"Magic is all about intent, Lily. I've been telling you since we were nine," Severus reminded her gently. "When you crossed over, you and Potter healed Harry with the burning intent to save _him_. You _knew_ that the Dark Lord had a piece of himself inside Harry, but you – I assume – spared no thought for the soul piece inhabiting your son as you endeavoured to save him."

"Of course not," Lily said.

"Then it stand to reason that the reason none of you have dropped dead to be returned to the other side is because Miss Granger's magic has protected you long enough to tether you here, and because Thanatos has been given _something_ in exchange for the robbery of your souls from his clutches."

"Harry's free?" James asked hopefully.

"He might be," Severus shrugged again. "There is a way to find out, but it's painful."

Remus frowned at Severus in annoyance for the very suggestion, even knowing that it would benefit them all to find out if Harry was still, or ever had been, a Horcrux.

"What do I have to do?" Harry asked.

"Someone would have to examine your soul," Severus said, eyeing the teenager. "Using magic, someone would reach inside of you and pulse magic into your core. If the soul piece of the Dark Lord is still inside you, it will attempt to attack the examiner to protect its host. It's part of the reason every attempt made on your life, thus far, has failed."

"Is this why I can see into his mind?" Harry asked, frowning fiercely. "Why I'm a parsel-mouth and why dementors hate me so much?"

Severus nodded grimly. "The screams of your mother's dying moments that you hear in their presence are not _your_ memories. They're the Dark Lord's. They attack you because they can sense the darkness of the soul piece."

Harry blinked, his brow furrowed as he tried to comprehend the amount of disturbing news being heaped upon him.

"What does the examination involve? You said it hurts?"

"It will feel like I've put my fist through your chest cavity and then used the Cruciatus curse upon your innards," Severus informed the teenager grimly. Remus frowned, knowing that if he knew Harry at all, the boy would agree to enduring the wretched pain if it meant that they'd have an answer and meant finding out whether or not his loved ones were safe in his presence.

Harry gulped.

"Why do you have to do it? Dad, couldn't you?" Harry glanced at James.

"I don't know how," James shook his head. "Lils, ever had to do this in your medi-witch training?"

Lily shook her head, too. "It's considered too dangerous to use on patients. Only the very highest qualification studies fifty years into medicine cover it."

"But Snape knows," Harry protested, frowning.

"Snape's obsessed with the Dark Arts," James shrugged. "It's a Dark spell, to reach inside someone and then use magic against their very soul. Of course, _he_ knows it. Twisted git."

Severus curled his lip at James, rolling his eyes at the disparagement even though, in the past, he'd have flown into a rage and hexed the lot of them. In the same room as Hermione, while discussing something so grave, he chose to refrain, though the way he fingered his wand suggested he'd certainly enjoy hexing James again, just for the hell of it.

"The soul piece is less likely to attack me, if it's still there, because of my association with the Dark Lord," Severus pointed out.

"What about _my_ soul?" Harry said. "I don't like you, sir."

Sirius snorted, and Remus hid a smile at his forthright admittance. Severus scowled at the boy.

"Unfortunately, Potter, there is no one else who could safely perform the spell. And I'm used to being attacked by the likes of you, pathetic though the attempts tend to be."

"Do you have to be a git all the time, Severus?" Lily asked, though she chuckled at the rudeness between her ex-best-friend and her son.

"He can't help it," Sirius said. "It's habit, by now."

"Eat me, Black," Severus retorted.

"Before we all start arguing again," Harry interrupted. "Can we get this over with?"

Severus glanced at the messy-haired teenager and frowned.

"Not right now," he shook his head.

"Why not?" Harry demanded.

"You're still healing, love," Lily told him. "To attempt the already dangerous procedure now, while you're still recovering from almost bleeding out and daying a few days ago, would needlessly put you at risk. We can wait a week or two."

"I might have a bit of Voldemort inside me!" Harry hissed. "I don't want to wait."

Lily narrowed her eyes on her son for the way he was being bratty, even if it was for a good reason.

"Don't take that tone with me, young man," Lily warned him. "You've been walking around with a bit of Voldemort inside you since you were fifteen months old. _If_ it is still there, I think it's safe to assume that you will survive another week of doing so until you are well enough to survive the procedure."

Harry narrowed his eyes behind his glasses, frowning fiercely.

"Regardless of whatever spectacular tantrum you are no doubt intending to throw, Potter," Snape sneered. "I am not moved by bratty teenagers who can't control their tempers. You _will_ wait until it suits me to perform the spell."

Remus watched the boy's fury fizz at Snape's condescending tone and he waited for him to lose his temper. However, unlike every other time he'd been goaded by Snape and denied something that meant saving others around him, Harry didn't lose his temper.

"Fine," he snapped. "But if Voldemort's soul is still inside me, and he uses it to possess me like he did with the blood snake at the Ministry, it's on all of your heads."

"Bit dramatic, mate," Ron said from the doorway.

"Yeah," James chuckled. "Leave the dramatics to Sirius, eh? We don't need two drama-queens in the family."

Sirius smirked. "Told you he was mine."

Remus couldn't hold back his laughter when Harry's face went red before he made a flabbergasted sound of protest at having his fury so wickedly punctured. The whole lot them began to laugh when Harry put his face in his hands and let out a defeated sounding chuckle of his own, resigning himself to wait a while longer to find out whether or not he was still a Horcrux. Remus knew he wasn't the only one in the room hoping to Merlin that Severus's theory was correct, and that Harry was free, once more.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: I love you all so much for being so invested in this story! I meant to have this chapter up sooner, but I was a little waylaid. Here it is! Are you excited? I'm excited. Much love!**

 **xx-Kitten.**

* * *

 **Tethered**

 _By Kittenshift17_

* * *

 **Chapter Eight**

* * *

"What do you bloody mean, 'you can't get into the house'?" James Potter exclaimed, eyeing his father like he'd gone mad. "I didn't sell the bloody thing or put it into permanent lockdown. All I did was seal it up when Lils and I went into hiding while she was pregnant."

"What wards did you use to seal it?" Charlus Potter asked of his son, frowning as they all stood outside the gates of an impressive, but overgrown estate on the farthest outskirts of the magical village of Fairystone in Somerset.

"All the usual wards to protect a magical dwelling," James shrugged defensively. "Wards to keep anything and everything from getting in while we were gone."

"Did you… tie that ward to our bloodline?" Charlus asked slowly and Remus shook his head when James furrowed his brow at his father.

"I'm not a complete idiot, Dad," James said. "If I'd made it so that _we_ couldn't get back in, it'd be bloody stupid."

"Well, why don't _you_ try opening it, since your mother and I have both failed?" Charlus argued hotly.

Remus watched as James narrowed his eyes before looking toward the gate into the estate and determinedly twisting his wand.

" _Finite_ ," he declared clearly, and Remus's nose twitched when a strong scent clogged the air as the spell did _something_.

"Nothing," Charlus said, looking vindicated.

"No, it did something," Remus said quietly, his nose twitching.

"Can you see the wards, Moony?" Sirius asked, glancing over at him.

"Not with these eyes," he shook his head. "But I can smell that your spell did something."

"Can you use your other eyes?" James asked, knowing Remus didn't like to let the wolf to the surface when he didn't have to.

So close to the full moon, Remus didn't even have to try before blinking the wolf into his eyes and letting the whole world shift. His brow furrowed at what he saw.

"The wards are…" Remus shook his head, tracing his eyes over the magic protecting the estate and preventing their entry. "They should've technically failed when you died, Prongs. But they're glowing iridescent purple and crackling with energy. Your _Finite_ left a scorch mark here over the part protecting the gate."

Remus hissed when he reached for it, touching the magic and scorching his hand in the process.

"They should've been linked to my bloodline," James frowned when Remus blinked the wolf from his eyes. "I…. oh shit."

"What?" Charlus asked warily.

"I made myself Secret-Keeper," James explained. "And the only other person who was living who I gave the address too, in case I died, was Lily."

"And she died the same night," Sirius said. "Meaning that even though we all _know_ the house is there, we can't get it because no one was Secret Keeper."

"I can get in," Harry answered softly and Remus, James, Sirius and Charlus all looked in Harry's direction to find that he'd crossed right over the wards and through the main gate. He was fighting with an overgrown blackberry bush that had partially blocked the entryway, but he was inside the wards.

"Then why can't we get in?" James frowned. "Maybe because we died. Pads, you try."

Sirius carefully walked forward, his hand outstretched. As had occurred when Remus has tried, Sirius scorched his hand on the wards guarding the building.

"Does that mean Harry is Secret Keeper?" Charlus frowned. "Harry, my boy, taking this and write down the address, could you. It's stamped over the archway on the inside."

Harry took the parchment and quill from his grandfather, scratching out the address as it was carved into the stone, before handing it back to them. James took it, read it, and tried to cross the wards, only to hiss and examine his hand in annoyance when he burned himself, too.

"It's not a Secret Keeper ward," Remus said, moving carefully around the ward, examining it with his werewolf eyes. "And it's not your colour, Prongs. It's not Harry's colour, either."

"My colour?" Harry asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Magic has a colour, as you know, Harry," Remus explained as he strolled about, seeking weakness in the wards. "You see it in the colour of every spell used in the magical word."

"But each spell is a different colour," Harry argued. "Stupefy is red, but the Killing Curse is green."

"They're stamped the colour of the wizard who invented them when we perform them, having learned them from a book or a tutor," Remus nodded. "But underneath that colour you see every day are the shades of the caster's own magic. Traces of ownership. The same way a person leaves a fingerprint when they touch something, it's like a magical signature. Everyone has a slightly different shade to their magic. The wards protecting the property aren't those shades of any of us, here."

"What shade is my magical signature?" Harry wanted to know.

"A few shades darker than James's," Remus smiled. "Burnished gold would be the closest description that your eyes would recognise."

"You see more colours than that, though?" Harry asked.

Remus nodded.

"This colour is…. Oh," Remus frowned, blinking the wolf from is eyes before his lips twisted into a self-deprecating smile.

"What?" Sirius asked, knowing the look well, by now.

"Hermione," Remus said simply.

"Her Runes reactivated the wards on this place?" James frowned. "But… that was _my_ magic."

"Yes, but whatever those Runes were that she drew, she drew them in Harry's blood, which is probably why _he_ can cross them, and you can't. She reversed the effects of death and time, Prongs," Remus pointed to his own face – almost completely wrinkle free and more handsome that he could recall being since his twentieth birthday.

"No wonder she's still unconscious," Sirius shook his head. "We need to figure out exactly what Runes she used, and we need to find a way to counteract them. If her magic is being funnelled to undo _all_ the effects of your death, including reinstating the wards and charms you'd left in place, she'll never recover."

"Blimey," James shook his head, eyeing the wards and the house with trepidation. "But then… how are we going to get in?"

"We're not," Charlus said. "Not without her. Until she wakes up and deactivates the wards, we won't be able to get in."

"What did you need from inside?" Harry asked. "I'll grab it."

"No!" all four adults shouted in unison, reaching subconsciously toward the boy.

Harry blinked.

"What?" he asked.

"Come out of there, mate," James beckoned, reaching toward his son when Harry frowned at them all. "If these wards have been reactivated by Hermione's magic, that means they've been down for almost fifteen years. And that means that this place is going to be in even worse condition than Grimmauld was when you went back there, Pads."

"But… I can just grab the stuff you need. I think I can fight off a few doxies by myself, Dad," Harry protested.

"Come out of there, Harry," Remus said quietly, his eyes shifting as his nose twitched, sensing something stirring behind Harry. "Come here. Now."

Harry glanced at Remus warily before hurrying back across the wards and letting James tuck him under his arm.

"No one goes back in there until the wards are deactivated," Remus said, his eyes tracing over the wards again before he crossed to a fallen down log that leaned precariously against the fence.

He climbed it quickly, as high as he could go before encountering the wards. It was just high enough that he could see over the stone wall that encircled the property.

"What is it, Moony?" James asked, eyeing him when Remus frowned.

"I can smell something," he said, his eyes scanning the area for any sign of movement.

"What kind of something?" Sirius asked, sniffing loudly and climbing the log behind him. "It's not wolf, is it? I can smell you; and I'm getting the faintest hint of Hermione, because it's her magical signature on the wards…"

"No, it's not wolf," Reus said grimly. "It's a demiguise…. And," he paused, spying a creature that suddenly appeared atop what had once been the stables that had housed Charlus's collection of Aethonans. "Oh, bloody hell. You have a Nundu."

"Oh, bugger," Charlus said. "I didn't think that thing would still be _alive_."

"You _knew_ about this?" James asked turning to his father in horror.

"He's a pet," Charlus shrugged. "Though I bet the giant bugger ate all my Aethonans! Blast it all, I forgot about him, if I'm being honest."

"You forgot?" James demanded. "You just _forgot_ about a giant cat with toxic breath that might be roaming around the estate? How did I never know you had a Nundu for a pet?"

"You did know," Charlus said. "You played with him when you were a baby. Your mother insisted that I set him loose in the forest on the back of the property, rather than keeping him in the house, after she found him in your bed one day when you were four. He wasn't hurting you, but the way he was curled around you, he could easily have sneezed on you and killed you by accident. I wasn't keen on letting him loose, mind, but I knew it was best. I still used to feed him pretty often, but the longer he was out there, the less I saw of him. By the time you'd reached Hogwarts age, I hadn't seen him in more than a year. I figured he'd wandered off, or that he'd been killed by some of the other beasts inhabiting that forest. You never encountered him when you lot were in school and running loose back there every full moon?"

"I think I did, once," Remus shook his head, watching the big cat eyeing him over the fence. "It… didn't go well."

"That time you were even more scratched up than normal after Prongs got his antlers tangled in the Devil's Snare and we lost track of you to get him loose?" Sirius guessed.

"Yeah. Pretty sure he wasn't too keen when I wandered onto his turf. He's going to be a problem when we go inside."

"Not if I go in first," Charlus said. "Hand-reared the little devil. He won't want to go biting the hand that fed him."

"You haven't fed him in more than thirty years, Dad," James rolled his eyes. "We might need reinforcements to go back inside."

"Did you say there was a demiguise in there?" Charlus asked curiously.

"You're not keeping him, Dad," James warned.

"We'll see," said Charlus.

Remus shook his head, knowing the eldest Potter's proclivity for magical creatures.

"I think so," Remus nodded. "Smells like it. Harry, you just stay out of there until we can all go in and you won't have to take on the remnants of your grandfather's menagerie all by yourself."

"You had a menagerie, Grandad?" Harry asked.

"Sure did, mate," Charlus said.

"You and Hagrid were good friends once, weren't you?" Harry asked suspiciously.

"You know it," Charlus winked at him and Harry shook his head, glancing at his father.

"Don't look at me, mate," James said. "My obsessions were your mother, and Quidditch."

"Mine were _your_ mother, and my creatures," Charlus grinned, clapping James on the shoulder and winking at Harry.

"What are yours, Harry?" Sirius asked, and Remus smirked.

"Ginny and Quidditch?" Remus guessed.

Harry blushed.

"Uh…" he said.

"Only, if there's not a bird you're obsessed with, you might be doing something wrong," James chuckled.

"I dunno," Harry rubbed the back of his neck. "I fancied Cho, for a bit, but after that snog at Christmas…"

He wrinkled his nose, trailing off, and all four of them laughed.

"Kissing crying witches always sucks, mate," Sirius ruffed Harry's hair. "Haven't snogged Ginny, have you?"

"No," Harry said, blushing.

"You want to?" James grinned at him son.

"Uh… I did…" Harry said, frowning. "But lately… well… I can't help noticing how much she looks like Mum."

Remus's eyes widened even as Sirius began to laugh.

"Oh, bloody hell," Sirius chortled with glee. "I hadn't even _thought_ of that!"

"I mean, the eyes are different, and her hair's a different shade of red, and Ginny's sportier – you know, with the Quidditch obsession and being a tom-boy – but I mean, I can't unsee it."

James began to chuckle.

"Are there any other witches who've caught your eye?" Charlus asked, trying to hide his smile when Harry's blush darkened.

"I haven't really looked," Harry admitted, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "I fancied Cho because she's into Quidditch, and I started noticing Ginny because _she's_ into Quidditch…"

"In other words, your one true love is Quidditch?" Remus chuckled.

"A good game of Quidditch has never confused me like girls do," Harry admitted sheepishly, and everyone began to laugh.

"What about the girls in your year, Harry?" James asked. "There's a few pretty ones there."

Harry shook his head. "I don't think I could fancy one from our year without incurring Hermione's wrath," he admitted. "She's… well, you've all met her. When you share a classroom with the likes of Hermione, all the other witches seem dense."

"And you want a bird with brains," Charlus chuckled. "Good for you, Harry. Any girl you bring home will need a good mind on her to escape unscathed when your mother and your grandmother get their claws out."

Harry paled.

"Yeah, don't bring home a stupid one, Harry," Sirius chuckled. "Mum _shreds_ the stupid ones."

"Admittedly, Dorcas _was_ a bit thick, Padfoot," James allowed.

Sirius chuckled. "She was bloody barmy, is what she was. A few mooncalves short of a flock, that one, but she was a bloody devil with that tongue."

Harry's cheeks went crimson all over again and Charlus shook his head.

"Marlene didn't fair much better when your mother got hold of her, as I recall?" Charlus said, recalling more of Sirius's past girlfriends.

"Oh, she was smart enough," Sirius shook his head. "Nah, Mum didn't shred Marlene because she was dim. Mum just knew I'd never do well with someone so possessive and annihilated the poor chit with mention of all my dalliances who weren't her."

"Why does everything come back to you being a tart, Sirius?" James taunted.

"I'm a giving soul, Prongs," Sirius said, smirking. "I give myself to whoever takes my fancy."

"Well, just don't take a fancy to Ginny until I figure out if I'm interested, yeah?" Harry piped up and Remus wasn't the only one to turn and look at the boy with wide eyes.

"She's… what? Fifteen? Fourteen?" James guessed, looking concerned. "Bloody hell, mate. Pads is a tart, but he's not a bloody criminal who chases after children."

"She's my cousin!" Sirius declared, looking a little green like he might be ill.

"Yeah, but so am I, Pads," James reminded him. "And you've snogged me plenty of times."

"Wait…" Harry held up both hands. "If you're his cousin, and he's her cousin, doesn't that mean that, technically, we're related to Ginny, too?"

James tipped his head to one side.

"Well, technically," James nodded. "Distantly, though…. Or, well… See, Sirius is Mum's great-nephew because Walburga is her niece. Lucretia Black – Molly's mother and Ginny's grandmother was Mum's first cousin, once removed. Which makes Ginny her first cousin, thrice removed. So technically you were second cousins with Lucretia, which makes you second cousins twice removed with Ginny, Ron, and the rest of the Weasleys.

"Anything as close as second cousins is considered legal in Britain," Sirius said, as though that might make things better. "And for all that inbreeding supposedly renders everyone with extra toes, I'll have you know I have a perfect ten toes, and obviously a perfect everything else, as well."

"You're…inbred?" Harry asked, his eyebrows rising to his hairline.

"My mother was born Walburga Black. My father was born Orion Black. They were second cousins when they married. Technically, when my brother was alive, Regulus was both my brother, and my third cousin."

"That's… twisted," Harry shook his head slowly. "So… if Ginny and I had children they would be…"

"Second cousins, thrice removed," Charlus supplied. "Completely legal, and with enough influx of other bloodlines via those removals that the likelihood of mutation would be very low."

"I don't think I want to discuss a _likelihood of mutation_ on any level when considering kids of my own, some day," Harry frowned.

"Then you better marry a muggleborn like I did, mate," James clapped him on the shoulder. "Because the rest of us a pretty much all related on some level."

"I don't suppose it helps at all to point out that Cedrella Black – Arthur's mother – was also related to Lucretia. Ginny's grandmothers on both sides are related. So technically, you, James, are Arthur's second cousin, which makes Harry and Ginny third cousins on the Weasley side, as well."

"Oh, bloody hell," Harry sighed.

"Probably for the best I never had a kid, you know," Sirius piped up when Harry looked saddened that Ginny was technically a relative – which seemed to cross her off the list of prospective girlfriends in Harry's mind. "It'd have been my luck to have had a daughter you'd be skirt-chasing, mate."

"Wouldn't we have been even more closely related?" Harry frowned.

"Well, I'm first cousins with Walburga," James said, "So I'm first cousins, once removed with Pads. Which makes you and Pads second cousins. So, you'd be second cousins, once removed with any of Padfoot's kids."

"So, one removal less than Ginny on the Prewett side, and an entire generation less on the Weasley side."

"Guess it's a good thing you don't have kids then, Padfoot," Harry shook his head.

"Yeah," Sirius nodded, blowing his cheeks out for a moment before he said, "Bet if I had a daughter, she'd be a looker, though."

"Not if she inherited that mop you call hair, she wouldn't," James taunted, and Remus shook his head as he watched his two best friends chase each other across the grass when James ran for it with Sirius on his heels, ready to whale on him.

 **~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~**

Hermione blinked her eyes open suddenly when an infusion of energy and adrenaline jerked her awake in her bed.

"Hermione?" Harry asked, sounding surprised when she lurched into a sitting position ad threw back the bed covers.

"Harry?" Hermione asked, blinking blearily, spying both Harry and Ron sprawled across the bed opposite hers, both in their pyjamas despite the faint glow of light that still peeked through the window.

"You're awake," Harry said. "And… bloody hell, Hermione, you can't get out of bed."

But she was. Hermione swung her legs out of bed and rose to her feet, adrenaline and energy racing through her, forcing her to move.

"You're going to collapse. Blimey, Ron, get off, could you? Hermione, no, don't go out there. You'll fall down the stairs", Harry called after her when Hermione stumbled to the door, her legs like lead under her, but her body pushing her to move. She recognised almost instantly from the strange rushing feeling inside her head that this had something to do with her wolf.

"Harry, is it a full moon?" Hermione asked, even as she left the bedroom where the boy was trying to disentangle himself from Ron, both of them curled under the covers.

"Shit," Harry cursed, following her out the door and down the stairs when she made a beeline for the bathroom without falling. "Snape said this wouldn't happen and when you didn't wake up all day, Remus said that you might sleep right through the full moon because you were so depleted. You're not supposed to be up, Hermione."

"Hey," Hermione said, putting her hand on Harry's chest when he hurried after her and made to join her in the bathroom. "Let me pee in privacy, please."

Harry blinked at her, his cheeks darkening.

"Right. Shit," Harry cursed again. "Mum! Dad! Someone? Blood hell, Hermione. You're really not supposed to be up right now."

Hermione ignored him, closing the door in his face and feeling like she had fire-ants crawling all over her skin as she crossed to the loo and did her business. She was quick about it, washing her hands when she was done, driven to move and to keep moving.

"Where's Remus?" Hermione asked when she opened the door to be greeted by five worried Potters and a frowning Severus Snape.

"Not here," James said. "He transforms at the cottage he inherited from his Dad and runs wild in the woods at full moons. I was on my way over there when I heard Harry calling."

"Can you take me there?" Hermione asked. "How high is the moon? Will he be transformed yet?"

James shook his head. "It's only mid-afternoon. The sun hasn't set yet. He won't transform for an hour, at least."

"I need to see him," Hermione said. "Now."

"Miss Granger, you are in no fit state to apparate or Floo," Professor Snape insisted. "Nor are you dressed for a frolic in the woods."

He nodded at the fact that she still wore only Remus's bathrobe – which currently hung open far enough to reveal the swell of her breasts and the top of her stomach. Hermione glanced down, knowing on some level that she was supposed to be modest and cover herself, but too itchy and jittery to do so.

"I really need to see him," she said. "I… I don't think you'll all be safe with me here tonight."

"You weren't fully infected. You weren't bitten," Snape argued. "You will not transform."

"Maybe not," Hermione said. "But I'm going to do something. I feel like my skin is covered in fire-ants."

Hermione blinked when Lily dodged around Professor Snape and laid a cool hand on her forehead. She smelled like chamomile tea, sweet biscuits, and James. Hermione drew her scent in through her nose in a long, deep inhale, her skin itching worse under the other woman's touch.

"You're a bit warm to touch, Hermione," Lily said. "Hold still, darling, and I'll check your vitals."

Hermione opened her eyes after her indrawn breath and she saw the way Harry flinched ever so slightly.

"Mum… her eyes…" Harry said quietly.

"Oh, dear," Lily frowned, pulling out her wand and casting a charm over Hermione.

Hermione watched impatiently, reading the results. Elevated heart-rate, adrenaline peaking, breath shallow.

"Let's…. get you to Remus," James suggested. "I can Side-Along apparate you. Lils, is she still completely depleted?"

"Uh…" Lily flicked her wand again. "Oh my… Merlin!"

Hermione watched the way the spell generated results, watching the magic inside of her flaring and fizzing out of control.

"Well, that's good, right?" Harry asked. "She's getting her magic back."

"Only for the moon," Snape said. "That is not magic generated and stored naturally within the body."

"But she's not fully infected," Lily frowned at Snape.

"No, but she's got a wolf, and Lupin fed an excess of his magic and his energy into her. That is all lycanthropic magic. It will wear off after the moon, I imagine."

"Right," James said. "Well, Hermione, do you have your wand?"

Hermione nodded.

"James, no," Lily said. "You can't ask her to perform magic right now."

"We don't have a choice, Lils. Who knows when she'll wake up next, and we need to be able to get into the estate and begin the clean-up, so we can move her there for the remainder of her recovery. And if she isn't funnelling magic into maintaining those wards, she'll heal faster."

Lily looked torn.

"What wards?" Hermione asked.

"Your runes revived the wards I placed over the family estate before going into hiding," James told her seriously. "That magic literally undid _everything_ that our deaths caused. It's why you've been out for so long."

Hermione nodded. "I can undo them," she said. "The wards, not the runes."

"You will be in danger of depleting yourself further," Snape argued quietly.

"I'll be fine," she said, dodging when the potions master leaned toward her with a needle clutched in his hand and ready to be plunged into her skin.

Hermione caught his wrist, watching the way his eyes widened in shock at her reflexes.

"It's an invigoration draught," he said sternly.

Hermione narrowed her eyes, drawing another deep breath in through her nose.

"It's a sedative," she corrected him, noting that he smelled like peppermint, bergamot and the dungeons at Hogwarts. "And you'll just be wasting it if you give it to me now, sir."

Snape narrowed his eyes on her, obviously not liking the grip she had on his wrist.

"You will be unsafe in Lupin's presence this evening, Miss Granger," he warned her.

"Remus would never hurt her," James argued.

"I'm not worried about him _hurting_ her," Snape said, snatching his arm out of her grip and eyeing her dangerously.

"He…" James drew a breath in through his nose suddenly, leaning toward Snape, and then Hermione. "Well… shit."

"Just, take me to see him, please," Hermione said quietly. "Or I'll take myself. I know the way."

"I'll bring her back afterward," James said, leaning toward Lily and capturing her lips with his for a long, loving kiss. Hermione tipped her head to one side, watching them kiss before James drew his wife into his embrace and stuck his nose into her hair, drawing in her scent like he couldn't get enough of it.

She suspected that both he and Snape had realised that she was putting out enough pheromones that it might make Remus lose control. It was a symptom of lycanthropy to excrete pheromones like perfume to lure unsuspecting victims, and Hermione knew it would probably be dangerous to be in Remus's presence until he transformed, but she needed to see him. She didn't know why. There was little he could tell her about her symptoms, since he was fully infected, while she was only partially infected, but her wolf was pacing and snarling, wanting to see him

"Come on," James said, offering her his hand.

Hermione took it carefully, letting him help her down the stairs and out the door.

"Do you want me to come with you, Hermione?" Harry asked, following them.

"No," James shook his head before Hermione could answer. "I can't guarantee to have her back before dawn, Harry. She _shouldn't_ be fully infected with the curse, but she's more affected than she currently should be. I may have to leave her with Remus tonight, while me and Padfoot keep him company. You can't come, mate."

"But she's my sister," Harry protested.

James smiled, ruffling Harry's hair. "I know, mate. And I know you want to protect her. But you're not an Animagus. You can't transform on a dime into an animal to be safe should one, or both of them, wolf-out. I'll protect her, I promise."

Harry looked like he didn't like the idea of James protecting her. Hermione could tell it was because he didn't want to risk losing his father so soon.

"I'll be fine, Harry," James said, seeming to read his son's mind. "Back in no time. Things should be fine. I should have her back just after moonrise, if she doesn't shift. If she does, or if I can't get her away, then we'll all be back tomorrow morning."

"Can't I… just… I could stay in the house," Harry bargained

James shook his head. "Moony would rip the bricks out one at a time to get to you if he could smell an unafflicted human in his territory on a moon night. Until you learn animagi, or you get infected with lycanthropy yourself, you're bound to the indoors where it's safe on moon nights, my boy."

Harry looked like he might pout, but James darted and glance at Hermione – who was scratching at her skin compulsively – before twisting away and Disapparating them both with a crack. Hermione clung to the wizard who looked so like her best friend when they landed somewhere that the grass tickled her feet.

"Where are we?" Hermione asked, releasing James quickly when she regained her balance.

"The Potter estate," James said. "I just need you to hold up your wand and cast a _Finite_ , love. Got to get these wards back under my control and then I'll take you to Moony."

"A _Finite_ won't be enough to undo all these, James," Hermione said, her eyes tracing over the iridescent purple wards guarding the property.

"Why not?" James frowned.

"They're multilayered," she said. "I can undo them. It'll just take a few minutes. Um… if I look like I'm going to fall, please don't let me flash you, yeah?"

James chuckled.

"Don't deplete yourself, Hermione. You're hopped on adrenaline from your wolf, right now, but Snape's right. You could easily overdo it and put yourself back in a coma."

"You need to get in here, you said," she pointed out. "I'll be fine."

Slashing her wand viciously through the air, Hermione began peeling back the layers and layer of warding that protected the property.

"Mother of Merlin," she heard James mutter from behind her when the smell of magic filled the air.

"How many wards did you cast here before you left?" she asked, frowning as she worked.

"Maybe ten?" James guessed. "Standard protection charms to keep out critters and invaders, and to keep anyone from finding it."

"Some of these are blood wards," Hermione said. "Try crossing before I disable them, could you? I don't think they were my doing. They're not my shade."

James reached out a hand toward the gate, surprised when he could actually touch it.

"So, the Rune only re-did my wards, not all the wards on the property that have been in place since we Potters bought the place. That's… interesting," James muttered. "Can you cross them?"

Hermione stepped through the gate, eyeing the blackberry bush by the opening with narrowed eyes, her nose twitching with the scent of many creatures inside the property.

"There are beasts loose on the grounds, James," Hermione told him. "A lot of them."

"You can smell them?" James asked. "Remus picked up on a Nundu my father kept as a pet, and a demiguise when we were here this afternoon."

"Could he cross the wards?"

James shook his head.

"I think you might have Doxies. And Puffeskins," she said, tipping her head and listening hard. "And there's a nest of owls up there."

She pointed through the gate toward a high window of the enormous mansion within.

"That's fine. We can deal with those. There are a lot of creatures on the grounds. The forest out back is as wild as the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts. We'll get them all cleaned out now that we can get in. We'd intended to move you here today, and to have Remus transform here, in the forest like he used to, where you'd be close by, but we couldn't cross the wards – except Harry."

"Harry could, but you couldn't?" Hermione frowned.

"Dad reckons it's because we died and were revived. Harry, as a still-living member of the bloodline could get in, but because we'd died and technically been reborn, we couldn't cross."

"Could Remus and Sirius?" Hermione asked.

James shook his head.

"They could before?" she confirmed.

James nodded.

"Maybe because it was my magic that reformed your wards?" Hermione suggested.

James shrugged. "Let me get some wards up, and cast a few neat spells to drive some of the critters back to the woods before we can return to start cleaning up, and then we'll go."

Hermione nodded, pacing back and forth across the entryway, passing the blackberry bush several times. James worked fast, twirling his wand with precision, and Hermione watched golden wards replace the purple ones she's erected. On the fifth pass of the blackberry bush, something burst free from inside it and Hermione pounced at it, snatching hold of a tiny Crup puppy and lifting it by the scruff of its neck.

"Hermione?" James asked, turning to investigate the noise when the puppy began to cry.

A rumbling growl from deeper inside the estate suggested that the puppy was fearful of being eaten – probably by the Nundu.

"Where did you get him?" James asked, laughing.

"The bushes," Hermione shrugged. "There's something heavy coming toward us. Unless you want to face off against it, I suggest we get going."

"Right," James muttered. "Um… We should take this little guy to Grimmauld Place. Don't want to risk Moony snacking on him."

Hermione wrinkled her nose, handing over the tiny puppy, noting that his forked tail and tiny size suggested he was very young, and probably feral.

"Dad used to breed these guys," James said, smiling as he tucked the pup under his arm. "I think he'll be pleased to see this one."

Hermione took James's hand, closing her eyes and letting him Apparate him back to Grimmauld Place.

"Dad?" James hollered as soon as the poked their heads inside the door.

Charlus came hurrying in from the kitchen with Dorea, Lily, Harry, Ron, and Snape on his heels.

"What is it, James?" Charlus asked.

"Found this guy at home," James said, handing over the softly crying Crup puppy.

Charlus held his hands out, accepting the tiny dog with an enormous grin.

"Hello, little one," he greeted the creature. "And aren't you beautiful? I'm very pleased to make your acquaintance. Yes, I am."

Harry was smiling like a fool and Hermione grinned at him before tugging on James's sleeve, the fire-ant feeling on her skin getting worse.

"Alright, let's go face the big, bad wolf, eh?" James chuckled, tucking her under his arm and disapparating them one more time.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Teehee!**

 **xx-Kitten**

* * *

 **Tethered**

 _By Kittenshift17_

* * *

 **Chapter Nine**

* * *

Remus's nostrils flared as he sat on the back porch with Sirius, sharing a pipe filled with a blend of tobacco, pot, and aconite. Sitting up slowly, Remus's eyes darted to the sound of rapidly approaching feet and he rose to his feet with a low growl when James rounded the corner from the backyard, followed promptly by Hermione.

Moony howled at the sight of the witch and Sirius looked over, frowning in confusion at Remus's reaction.

"Hermione," he greeted, grinning. "You're awake! How're you doing, love?"

Hermione didn't answer him and when Remus's traced his eyes over her face, he found that her irises were shot through with the gleam of her wolf, her pupils dilated, and her heart-beat rapid and uneven inside her chest.

"Fuck!" Remus cursed, darting a look at James. "Prongs, you shouldn't have brought her here. She's not safe here."

"She wasn't safe at headquarters, either," James said. "Sat up in bed and practically ran down the stairs before Harry could stop her. Her adrenaline levels are off the charts, according to Lily's diagnostic charms, and she's been asking for you, mate."

"Moony?" Sirius said, standing quickly and clapping Remus on the shoulder.

Moony wasn't listening. His wolf was focused solely on the little she-wolf inside the curly-haired witch who was hurrying toward him. She was scratching at her skin like she wanted to claw herself out of it, and she was still dressed in his bathrobe. Remus noted idly that it hung open indecently, revealing her cleavage and the top of her midriff, the loosely tied sash just barely holding it closed to hide her nipples. She had wild bed-hair after being unconscious for days, and she was trembling.

"You shouldn't have brought her here, Prongs," Remus rasped in a low voice, fighting the urge his wolf had to pounce on the young witch and ravish her right there on the grass in front of his friends.

"Snape tried to sedate her," James offered quietly. "Her reflexes are too fast and when she grabbed him, her allure slammed right through his defences. She was going to cause problems at the house."

"What do you think she's going to do here?" Remus asked, raising his eyebrows as the young witch walked right up to him with all the confidence of a lingerie model, tipping her head just so, her wolf controlling her actions and exposing her throat to him even as she advanced, clearly intent on coming close enough to touch.

Remus let her.

He couldn't help it. As it always did at this time of the moon's cycle, his libido raged out of control and despite having dealt with the problem as best he could alone and with the assistance of enough alcohol to almost kill him and a bit of submission on Padfoot's part, he couldn't push away the pretty witch as she invaded his personal space, still offering him her throat. She whimpered as she reached him, hesitating only a moment before putting her hands on his abs and then trailing them around his waist, burying her nose in the front of his shirt and curling herself around him.

James and Sirius didn't say anything, both knowing from past experience what it was like to be faced with his full, unrelenting allure and having done something similar. When Remus lowered his nose to skim it over the side of Hermione's exposed throat, the little witch whimpered, nuzzling her cheek against his chest and Remus recognized the canine urge to mark him with her scent, and to coat herself in his scent, too.

Without even planning to, or thinking about it, she'd declared herself his packmate, without the need for biting to be initiated, and Remus realised with a jolt that she'd already bitten him. She had her wolf in the first place because she'd bitten him and ingested his blood. Technically, that made him her alpha and he could feel her trembling lessen the longer she simply stood in his embrace, leaning into him and breathing in his scent.

"Moony?" Sirius asked carefully, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"It's alright," Remus said, aware that his voice was husky. "I'm in control."

Sirius breathed out slowly, squeezing his shoulder lightly before bringing the pipe back to his lips and inhaling the mind-altering concoction to hide his smirk. He passed it to James when he'd taken his hit and James took it gratefully, strolling over and flopping down into one of the chairs on the porch. Remus turned carefully, curling one arm around the teenage witch's back and turning her along with him.

For a long time, he stood there, letting the younger witch nuzzle into him, feeling more of his strength passing from him to her, and feeling the strange tingle when some of her adrenaline coursed from her and into him. Their tether had linked them for the rest of their lives, he knew, and the little wolf inside of her was writhing for release. Remus had to clamp down on the urge he had to lower his mouth to her exposed neck and sink his teeth into her flesh. Until he transformed, he couldn't further infect her, but he knew that biting her would be a bad idea. She was struggling enough with having a wolf of her own as it was. He didn't need to make it worse by biting her.

"I'm sorry," she whispered eventually, her voice as husky as his had been even as she slowly pulled out of his embrace, stepping back and dropping her hands until they were no longer touching.

"Don't be," Remus smiled kindly. "It's normal that your wolf would seek out mine on a moon night."

"Perhaps, but I should have better control over her," Hermione said, frowning and taking another step back, putting more distance between them two of them.

"You probably would have, if not for being tethered, love," Sirius piped up, handing over the pipe to Remus once his hands were free once more.

Remus took it, drawing the intoxicating smoke deep into his lugs, letting the calming effect of the cannabis and the poisoning effect of the wolfsbane penetrate his lungs to sing through his blood and further relax his wolf.

Hermione watched him with glowing gold eyes, stepping closer again quickly and taking the pipe from his hands when Remus made to pass it to James. She brought the pipe to her lips in such a way that Remus had to look away, lest his lecherous inner animal acknowledge the erotic way she wrapped her lips around the end of the pipe as she drew on it.

"Done that before, treasure?" Sirius asked, raising his eyebrows when she didn't choke or cough as she held the smoke deep in her lungs for three long beats before exhaling, some of the tension in her shoulders loosening.

"My grandpa used to smoke a pipe," she nodded slowly. "When Gran wasn't looking, he'd let me try it. I… I should go. This is your first moon with James back, after all. I don't want to be in the way."

"You can't leave," Remus shook his head, aware from the low and gravelly tone in his voice, and the fact that the words came out without permission, that Moony was speaking through him.

"I can," Hermione assured him.

Remus growled at her very softly. "No. You can't. You won't be safe anywhere but here tonight, _gealai."_

Her eyes widened at the name, and she looked momentarily stunned and rather like she wanted to argue. Remus narrowed his eyes on her in return, the wolf inside him raging for release, demanding her submission, insisting that she do as she'd been commanded by her Alpha. She tipped her head once more, almost subconsciously exposing her throat, and she sighed before she carefully moved across the space between them to plop down on the armrest of his chair. She didn't look at him as she did so, passing the pipe over to James.

James and Sirius shared a look that Remus wasn't sure he liked, but he didn't say anything.

"Will she be safe here when you transform?" Sirius asked eventually when they'd all passed the pipe around their little circle once more.

Remus glanced at the little curly haired witch where she sat perched on the armrest of her deck chair. She'd pulled her knees up to her chest and she was idly scratching at her skin, obviously still feeling the effects of the full moon as it rose. He knew, all too well, the terrible itching sting under the skin as the fur of the wolf threatened to poke through flesh when the moon rose, so he didn't blame her for scratching.

"She'll transform this evening," Remus said quietly, and Hermione looked over at him sharply.

"You said I wouldn't," she argued. "After I bit you, you said I wouldn't."

"And you won't, next month, or any month after this one," he told her, tipping his head to one side as he regarded her, ignoring Moony's insistence that she'd be more comfortable sitting in his lap and grinding on his erection.

"The depletion?" James guessed, handing the pipe to Sirius before cracking open a bottle of whiskey he'd brought with him and conjuring four glasses.

Remus nodded. "With her regular magic as a witch being so depleted, and the fact that I've been channelling my magic and my strength into her for days, in addition to the new formation of her little wolf, there won't be enough witch-magic to override the lycan-magic. She'll transform."

Hermione watched him with wide eyes, and Remus hated the way her gaze darted repeatedly to his lips as he spoke. He knew it was only as a result of the pheromones he was putting out in waves, and he knew that in the morning it would wear off and things would be back to normal. Until then, all he had to do was resist her for just a little while longer. Just until the moon rose and he didn't have to worry about the very human urge to snog her senseless.

"There's no risk of you biting her and infecting her further?" Sirius asked, and Remus glanced at the other wizard, grateful for the distraction and for the fact that he was trying to keep Remus's mind on the effects, rather than on the urge he had to pull the messy haired young woman into his lap and bury his fangs in her flesh.

"Not if she fully transforms to wolf – which she should do. This evening it will be as though she was fully afflicted with lycanthropy, the same as me, and therefore she shouldn't be in danger," he said.

"And next month?" she asked.

"We'll deal with next month when it comes," Remus said gruffly, tipping his head back and bringing the glass of whiskey James poured for him to his lips, gulping down the liquid until it was all gone.

His eyes traced the sky, noting the way the sun was dulling. In the middle of summer, it wasn't going to fully set for hours yet, but the moon was rising. He could feel it crawling over his flesh and he could feel the way Moony raged within him, ready to burst free. He should go. He preferred to transform in private, where his friends didn't have to see the gruesome ways his bones broke and his skin split wide open as the wolf inside him burst free, his limbs reshaping and his body sprouting fur. He hated that they had to hear him screaming, and he preferred it if they didn't have to watch the reason why he screamed.

He darted a look toward Padfoot, and then Prongs, before holding his glass out for another whiskey. James poured it, grinning at him as he did so.

"Hermione, you want another one, love?" James asked when Remus had sat back in his chair and brought the glass to his lips, drinking from it deeply.

Remus watched the way the witch ceased her scratching, looking at the glass of whiskey she'd yet to touch.

"You've had whiskey before, right?" Sirius confirmed, raising his eyebrows at the girl.

"I… once or twice," she admitted. "Grandad used to sneak me all the illicit things when I was younger. I never really cared for the taste, back then."

She sniffed the contents of her glass before taking a hesitant sip. Remus watched the way the liquid dampened her lips even as she swooshed it around her mouth, rolling it across her tongue and sampling the flavour. He growled low in the back of his throat, his nails lengthening toward claws and his entire body leaning subconsciously toward the girl.

Moony _wanted_ her.

Sirius nudged him, narrowing his eyes slightly when Remus darted a look at him and Remus realised he was poised to pounce on the witch. Skolling his drink, Remus held his glass out to James for another and Sirius smirked just a little bit.

"It's nice," Hermione said, oblivious to the way Remus had watched her and planned to ravish her in those brief moments.

"You better drink it down, love," Sirius said. "If your transformation is anything like Moony's, this might well be the worst night of your life."

Remus frowned at him, not wanting him to scare the girl.

Hermione sighed, and she darted a look at Remus, finding him reaching for more whiskey. Their eyes met briefly and Remus almost lost control.

"Drink more," he said quietly. "You'll need it."

She traced her eyes over his face, shot through with gold as they were, and Remus _knew_ in that moment that she wanted him. She tipped her head up, her eyes tracing the sky above the forest surrounding the cottage and searching for the moon.

James poured her another glass, refilling his own cup and Sirius's before handing the bottle over to Remus rather than bothering to keep pouring him more. Remus took it gratefully, unable to take his eyes off the witch.

"Well," James said, though he was grinning just a little bit. "This will be a long night."

"Moon nights are always long, Prongs," Remus muttered, forcing himself to look away from the smooth expanse of Hermione's neck as she continued searching the skies, sipping her whiskey.

"Not when I'm around," James said. "Forgotten what it's like to run with us, old boy?"

Remus met James's eyes before glancing at Sirius, who began to grin widely. Yes, he _had_ almost forgotten what it was like to run under the full moon with the two of them. He'd almost forgotten what it was like to not be so alone under the glow of the full moon every month.

"Let's just hope I don't attack you, yeah?"

"Please," James rolled his eyes. "You've been taking Wolfsbane all week. You're not even going to lose control of your faculties. Not like you used to when we were at school. If anything, the most dangerous one here tonight will be me. It's been a long time since I ran on four hooves."

"And you always were a big clumsy git," Sirius needled immediately.

"Says the goofy canine," James rolled his eyes. "Go back to licking your own sack, Fido."

"You're just mad because you wish I'd lick yours," Sirius argued, and Remus shook his head, watching Hermione blush at their banter.

"Come on, Pads. We both know you want to run your tongue over every inch of me," James smirked.

"Did you even shower today?" Sirius asked.

"Did you?" James replied, smirking.

"Nope. Thought the smell might keep you away."

"Idiot," James laughed. "No wonder you stink."

"Should've known you were attracted to my masculine musk, old boy," Sirius said.

"Look mate, I was dead, not bloody stupid," James said. "No one wants to get within ten feet of that funk you're putting out."

"You're already less than ten feet from me, stupid," Sirius laughed.

"Yeah, but that's 'cause I'm a good bloke and don't want you to get your feelings all hurt. I know what a drama-queen you are when you break a bloody nail, let alone when no one wants to talk to you."

'Please," Sirius rolled his eyes. "Feel free not to talk to me, dickhead. Merlin, I'd forgotten how bloody annoying your voice is."

"I'm going to serenade you, just for that," James informed him, flicking his wand at the wizarding wireless radio on the kitchen window.

Remus watched the way Hermione jumped when the music began to blast – playing an old record from the 70s that they'd listened to pretty much every moon night since their fifth year. The tune was familiar, and Remus found his foot tapping to the tune even as James began to sing – badly and far more off-key than he usually did – just to torture Sirius.

"You're going to deafen us, you bloody wanker," Sirius said, clamping his hands over his ears though he'd begun to laugh as James got up and began to dance along to the music, too. Equally badly, in accordance with his singing, of course.

"Pair of sods," Remus muttered, bringing the bottle of whiskey to his lips and gulping down more of the amber liquid when Sirius began to sing, too.

Hermione began to laugh softly, shaking her head as she watched the pair of them dance and sing, trying to outdo each other like they always did.

"Are they always like this?" she asked, turning to look at him slowly, unfurling her legs from where she'd pulled them to her chest and stretching them toward him as she turned a little to better meet his gaze.

"This is just the beginning," Remus admitted, smiling a bit easier when his idiot friends began waltzing as James tripped over his own feet and Sirius caught him, heedless of the fact that they were waltzing to Creedence Clearwater Revival's _Bad Moon Rising_. James kicked his feet about like a salsa dancer and Sirius twitched his hips and shook his long hair in time with the music and for the first time in a long time, Remus began to laugh as the moon rose.

"Will it hurt?" Hermione asked him quietly and Remus looked away from the pair of gits still dancing and howling out the lyrics to their favourite full moon song to meet her gaze.

"Yes," he admitted, not wanting to lie to her. "I don't know if you'll retain control of your faculties, since you haven't been drinking Wolfsbane. If you fully transform to wolf tonight, it will hurt like nothing you've ever felt."

She nodded, frowning a little.

"Will I be safe?" she asked.

"With me?"

She shook her head. "I mean, will I be safe to be around?" she clarified. "I don't want to hurt any of you."

Remus's lips pulled into a grimace at the oft-uttered sentence he'd spoken a million times before every full moon with his friends before the Wolfsbane potion was invented.

"You won't be able to hurt us. They'll be transformed to animals, so you won't want to hurt them. And you won't hurt me."

"How can you be sure?" she asked, and Remus watched her reach for him carefully, peeling her hand form her own flesh where she'd been clawing at the skin and dragging too sharp nails lightly over his forearm, apparently unable to resist.

Remus trembled just a bit at the touch, almost unable to bear it when all he wanted to do right at that moment was show her just how much of an Alpha male he happened to be.

"You're not fully infected. Only your depletion will allow for the transformation this full moon," Remus told her in a low voice, tracing his eyes over her legs when she slid them across his lap, her dainty ankles looking so utterly breakable.

He almost smirked when he noticed that, due to her unconsciousness, she hadn't shaved her legs in several days.

"That doesn't mean I won't lose control," she whispered. "I don't want to hurt you, Remus."

Tipping his eyes up to meet her brilliant bronze gaze, Remus twisted his lips into an expression caught somewhere between a smug smile, and a grimace.

"You can't hurt me, _gealai_ ," he murmured. "I'm your Alpha."

She made a soft sound that reminded him of a cat purring and Remus lost control of himself. Sliding his hands up her legs, heedless of their ungroomed state, he parted the fabric of the robe she wore to get at more of her skin. She didn't try to fight him off or push him away when he curled his hand around the back of her knee before gently pulling her into his lap until she was perched very much inside his personal space.

From the way she ducked her head and nuzzled her nose against his chest where his top buttons were open, Remus knew she was having as much trouble fighting her newfound animal instincts as he was. Remus suspected she didn't need a textbook to tell her what the hard, hot lump under her under was, either. He growled low when she shifted her weight on his lap, grinding herself against his rigid cock.

"Hermione!" Sirius said. "Dance with me, sweetheart."

Remus growled at the Animagus in warning when he reached for the girl, warning him away. Sirius made a face at him, trying to tug on Hermione's hand but the witch curled her arm around Remus's neck, refusing to budge.

James danced forward, grabbing Sirius and pulling him away by the hand. Remus turned his attention back to the female in his lap, his hand sliding north from her knee, unsheathed claws trailing over her inner thigh and revelling at the heat pouring off her. Merlin, she was burning up.

The thought penetrated his lust filled mind long enough that Remus blinked slowly.

She squeaked in surprised delight when Remus pushed a hand to the middle of her shoulder blades, forcing her to hunch over before he moved her hair out of the way and pressed his lips directly to the back of her neck.

"Oi! Moony, come on. She's sixteen! She's still underage, mate," Sirius interrupted them, breaking from his dance with James to hurry closer again.

"I know that, you bloody tosser," Remus hissed. "I'm not biting her, I'm taking her temperature. She's burning up like she's got the fever."

Sirius frowned, and Hermione made a noise of surprised protest when Sirius copied his actions and pressed his lips to the back of her neck.

"Shit," he said, jerking away and reaching up to touch his lips as though they'd been burned. "Prongs! You test her."

"As though I know anything about health?" James asked. "My wife's the healer, lads, not me."

"Just bloody do it," Sirius commanded.

James sighed.

"Sorry, Hermione," he apologised awkwardly before copying his two best mates and pressing his lips against the back of her neck.

"Oh, bloody hell," he muttered as he pulled away. "It'll be the firewhiskey, you tosspots! She's never had it before when she's also smoking our unique blend of pot, aconite, and tobacco. Any one of the two would've knocked her on her arse even if she wasn't already depleted and about to go through the full metamorphosis from human to werewolf tonight. Hermione, love, you feeling alright?"

Remus flipped her the right way up, but not before she wiggled around enough in his grip to sink her teeth into his forearm.

"Ah, fuck," Remus groaned, tipping his head back as the witch sat up with his flesh still in her mouth.

It felt way too fucking good for his peace of mind, though it didn't hurt in the slightest. She hadn't even broken the skin, she was nipping just hard enough to sting, and definitely hard enough to get his attention, but not so hard as to draw blood. Merlin's hairy toes, he was going to come in his fucking pants if she didn't stop wriggling in his lap and nibbling on him like he was her new favourite chew toy.

"Shit," Sirius muttered. "I think it's hit her all at once. Hermione? Treasure? You with us?"

Hermione turned her head in Sirius's direction, letting go of Remus's arms.

Remus couldn't see her face, but from the way Sirius recoiled in surprise, he got the feeling it wasn't good.

"What?" he asked, frowning at his two best mates even as he subconsciously wrapped both arms around her waist, overcome with the strangest sense that she was going to lunge at Sirius.

When she tried, he knew he'd been right to be cautious.

"She's transforming," Sirius said quietly, skittering back a few steps to keep from getting bitten.

Remus doubted she'd be able to infect anyone since she didn't have the full, raging lycanthropic infection coursing through her veins, but she could certainly do some damage.

"We'll shift," James said. "Let her go, Moony."

Remus wasn't sure he wanted to. In fact, he kind of wanted to tell his friends to fuck off, yank her house-coat out of the way, rip his jeans and bury his cock in all that heat pouring off of her.

 _Sixteen_ , he reminded himself. _Underage. Off limits._

Not that Hermione seemed to care. Neither did Moony, for that matter. By wolf-logic she'd bled, and she was a woman capable of bearing children and therefore more than mature enough to be rutted like the pair of horny canines they were.

When she suddenly went lax in his grip, sprawling back against his chest and turning her face into his neck, Remus frowned. For a terrible moment he thought she could smell the desire pouring off him and was reacting to it. Still gripping her tightly, lest it be a ruse, he blinked when she clenched her teeth and balled her fists.

Her breathing grew laboured and Remus knew in a heartbeat that she was trying to regain control of herself.

"You don't have to fight it, _gealai_ ," he murmured into her ear. "Padfoot and Prongs are used to shifting early when I lose control."

She whimpered and nipped his neck in a way that made him want to slide his hands the length of her torso to burrow between her legs, but he held firm.

"I can do it," she said raggedly. "I can. I will."

Remus chuckled.

"No amount of willpower will stave off the effect of the moon, Hermione," he said. "Believe me, if it could, I'd never transform."

"I can," she growled fiercely, and Remus chuckled, supposing it wouldn't hurt to let her try.

Keeping one arm belted around her waist, he reached for the whiskey bottle with the other, brining it to his lips and drinking deeply. Hermione writhed in his hold as the change began to hit her, and Remus tightened his grip, still drinking the whiskey greedily and hoping that enough of it might knock him on his arse before he could do something stupid, like attempting to fuck her the minute they were both transformed.

"Should we shift?" Sirius asked quietly when Hermione began to whimper, squirming in his lap like she was enduring the Cruciatus curse, her whole body shuddering and trembling.

"If you want," Remus shrugged. "I won't let her go. You're safe a while longer."

"What about you?" James asked, eyeing him.

Remus's mouth pulled up at one corner.

"I'm alright, Prongs," he said. "It's only just starting to itch."

James frowned at him for a moment.

"More weed?" he offered, raising one eyebrow.

"Gods, yes," Remus nodded, watching his best friend pack the pipe once more.

"Is she alright?" Sirius asked, eyeing the witch still squirming in Remus's lap.

"Course she's not," Remus said, rolling his eyes. "She's about to transform for the first time, without Wolfsbane, when she shouldn't be able to transform at all."

Hermione was breathing hard in his lap and Remus winced when she turned her head a buried her teeth in his neck, right where it joined his shoulder. Merlin's fucking peacocks, he wanted to do positively animalistic things to the little witch right in that moment.

"Easy, Moony," Sirius said, leaning forward and gripping his knee tightly, trying to ground him, trying to keep him from doing despicable things to the teenager.

"Fuck," Remus muttered, clenching his eyes closed.

"Here you go, mate," Prongs said, nudging him and offering him the pipe. "Come on. Nice big hit. I double packed the Aconite, so it's a bit bitter, but it'll chill you both out, yeah?"

Remus didn't have a free hand, but James pressed the pipe to his lips and Remus drew the smoke deep into his lung, holding it for as long as he could before breathing it out slowly, feeling the wicked curl of it through his bloodstream and racing through his head.

"Hermione, love? You next," James said, risking disfigurement when he pressed the pipe to Hermione's lips.

Remus was surprised when she managed to huff in the smoke, holding it in her lungs before exhaling, and reaching a clawed hand up to snatch hold of James's wrist before he could pull the pipe away. She took a second hit on the thing before letting him go, having to peel her fingers free of his wrist with her other hand, and leaving a welt around James's wrist. She was struggling to hold onto her humanity, Remus knew, and he knew it was a battle she would ultimately lose.

It occurred to him as he held her while she struggled for her self control, that this was what his friends felt like, and this was the impotence they'd lived with every full moon for as long as they known about his lycanthropy. Watching Hermione struggle and fight to hold on, even for just a few minutes more like it would make a difference, was like a new and unusual form of torture that he most certainly did not appreciate. Merlin, he was a tosser to have forced them to live with this wretched, twisted feeling of guilt festering in his gut and he understood with sudden clarity why it was that they often lost their tempers and shouted at him to just let go, to give in to Moony and let the wolf out, rather than grappling and struggling for dominance in a battle he was forever fated to lose.

"Let go, _gealai_ ," he murmured into her ear, pressing his mouth to the sensitive shell and feeling the way she trembled, whining softly like he were torturing her, too.

She didn't let go. She fought harder, beginning to writhe and flail in his grip until he lost his hold on her. Sirius and James jumped back when she got loose, both of them watching her warily like she might explode at any moment. Hermione staggered forward a few steps, evading Remus's hand when he reached for her, intent on capturing her once more. He winced when she stumbled right off the edge of the porch before beginning to run toward the forest across the backyard, the bathrobe slipping from her shoulders as she ran.

"Shit!" Remus cursed, passing Sirius the bottle of whiskey he'd been chugging before he ran after the little witch, expecting she might hurt herself or get lost in the woods if he lost sight of her.

The sound of her scream hit them before he could even cross the yard and Remus closed his eyes at the agony lacing her tone. A second scream ripped from her lungs soon after and Remus winced when he heard the distinctive cracking of additional vertebrae manifesting at the base of her spine.

"Moony?" James asked, his tone worried and Remus looked back at his two best friends where they cautiously descending from the porch.

James looked beyond worried, and Remus had the feeling that the magic connecting James to the witch by blood was making him worry for the girl as though she was his very own daughter.

"She'll be alright, Prongs," Remus offered quietly. "The shift has started. It'll be over, soon."

Pained whimpers came from just inside the forest, and Remus looked away from his friends, intent on finding the witch who'd so foolishly tethered herself to him and brought herself all this agony. He stepped into the forest feeling the pull of the moon, and the draw of desire, and the unusual sensation of knowing his packmate was in pain and being utterly helpless to soothe her.


End file.
